Counting the Seconds
by firstForward
Summary: An excavation team has started to unearth the Chamber in an attempt to restore it to its original glory. Dark Marik is back, though only a small piece of his soul remains, sealed within the Rod. And Yuugi is the first on his list for revenge.
1. Chapter 1

Counting the Seconds

Chapter 1

The world under the tent was a little more like home to the man. There was a thick brown mat laid out on the floor, looking slightly bumpy from the hard stone under it. A high wooden table stretched against one side of the tent, covered in important papers. There were two hard-backed chairs to match, set off to the side. Half-opened crates were stacked neatly in the back corner, and next to them was a couch, of sorts. It was old and no longer held much of its shape, but it was comfortable. On this couch, stretching languidly over the cushions, was the man himself. His eyelids fluttered in rhythm with his breathing. He was not sleeping, however; as was indicated by his indistinct muttering.

There was a sudden breeze, and this quiet world inside the tent was interrupted by the flapping of the curtain over the doorway. The man opened his eyes, and irritably gathered himself up to tie the curtain shut. As he was reaching for the fabric, a hand pushed it aside and someone entered the tent. It was a man; dark-skinned, but naturally. His head was shaved, and eyes were rounded in a fashion that showed he was a local. The newcomer glanced at his expression and offered a smile. "This heat isn't likely to get any better, but at the very least, it's not likely to get any worse," he told him.

"The heat is the least of my concerns, Akhom. I am more interested in learning about whether or not we have received permission yet to start the excavation." Turning on his heel, he walked over to the table and stabbed a finger on a detailed map spread out before him. "This entire cliff is an ideal location for hiding the tombs we've long been searching for. Now, if we could only just start—"

"And I have come to tell you that we can, sir. The Ishtar family has finally accepted our terms, though with some modifications." Akhom reached into a pouch slung over his shoulder, and withdrew a folder. It was snapped up eagerly from his fingers. "Dr. Yoshida, I personally think that this is the best offer we'll receive. The Ishtar family has been extremely reluctant through most of our negotiations. Arguing further could cause them to take back their offer."

Eyes scanning quickly over the document, Dr. Yoshida barely heard him. The cliff was now open to his team's explorations, provided that he did not go further into the valley. Beyond, he knew, was a narrow pass that led further into the rocky mountain range. And deep within lay the most prized treasure of Egyptian history: the tomb of the Nameless Pharaoh. "They are not permitting us to explore the Pharaoh's tomb," he noted aloud, "but this will do, for now. I am of the firm belief that we will find what we came here for."

Akhom took a deep breath. "The tombs of the last keepers of the Millennium Items," his eyes shone with unbridled excitement, "but no one has thus far uncovered them. Are you sure..." Akhom broke off, and silently watched the man flip open a pencil case. He scribbled away at the map on the table, delightedly planning routes that the team would take. There would be no more conversation between them, then. He understood this silent command instantly. "I am going to inform everyone to prepare to launch the excavation," he said, and left the tent without another word.

Dr. Yoshida nodded briefly, although Akhom had already left. He paused a moment to consider the meeting that he would have to attend in order to sign the contract that would entitle him access to the cliff face. His brow crinkled in distaste. He was not looking forward to dealing with that Marik again. Determined, confident, and self-assured, he had not taken well to what he had deemed the _desecration_ of the land they held jurisdiction over. The young Egyptian had argued hotly with him, stating that some history was better left untouched. His sister had been equally as frustrating. With her calm, cool voice, she had suggested he best look to other projects to spend his time on. He gave an annoyed snort at the image this thought brought up (the sea-coloured eyes, the golden bands in her black hair). They had allowed him this one thing, to search for the tombs of members of the highest court to the Pharaoh. But still, they kept him away from his true desire. His fingers clenched unconsciously around the pencil in hand. Somehow, he would find a way to get around that. This new endeavour would please him for a while, though, so he had to put all his energy into that. He could consider other projects later. At least six tombs were waiting to be discovered, he imagined. He relished the idea that he and his team, before anyone else, would be the ones to do it.

Many hours passed. The day, as Akhom had assured him, did not grow any hotter. The breeze did die down, however, which made it seem as if it had. The entire archaeological team (some hundred people in total) spent the day preparing for the dig, loading trucks with supplies. Tools were sorted and counted, and the heavier machinery was going through check-ups to ensure maximum efficiency. The tents, trailers, and make-shift buildings were to stay put -this was their intended campsite, and it was not far from the location they would work on. Finally, nearing the late afternoon, Dr. Yoshida received word that the Ishtar family had arrived to conclude their agreement. Gathering some paperwork from his office tent, he walked to the trailer to greet them. It was sleek in design, with the white exterior gleaming in the harsh sunlight. A low rumble issued from a vent, indicating that the air conditioning was on. He approached the door. Stamping off the excess sand on his boots, he gripped the metal doorknob and twisted.

The cool air that welcomed him was certainly satisfying after having been outside. A few stairs led up to the living and dining area of the trailer. There was a long couch lining one wall, and a short table opposite of it. The kitchen curled around the table, leaving little room to cook. Past the couch was where the bedrooms were situated. There was a faint musty odour of dirt that was somewhat familiar, and the outdated plaid fabric adorning the couch and chairs seemed to match it. Ascending to the top of the stairs, the man took stock of his surroundings. There was his legal advisor sitting at the table, good. Leaning against the wall beside the couch was Marik Ishtar, bold purple eyes sparking with intelligence. His muscular arms were crossed over his chest, and his face was raised, proudly meeting his gaze with an expression of authority. He looked for all the world like he owned the place. Dr. Yoshida turned his gaze to his sister, sitting on the couch with hands folded neatly in her lap. She too had an air about her that demanded respect. Her confidence was not as easy to see, but more subtle in the way her jaw was set, the way her back was straight and shoulders were relaxed. There was a third person in the room, a man whom he had never been introduced to. The wild tattoo covering half of his face (hieroglyphs which he was not close enough to read) suggested he might be some sort of bodyguard.

Dr. Yoshida spread his arms in greeting. "Welcome, my friends. I'm so glad we have finally reached an agreement. It's good to see that Egypt is not completely adverse to letting foreign companies explore its ancient history." He strode forward to shake hands with the sister, knowing that it was she who had probably organized the arrangement, and not her brother. But it was Marik whose hand was suddenly in front of his face, cocky smirk lining his cheeks. Dr. Yoshida clasped his hand warily, noting with annoyance the golden bangles that he wore. Assuming that they were painted with real gold (although this did not seem likely), they must have cost the man a fortune. What an ego.

"Doctor," Marik said with false cheerfulness, "we too are glad to reach an agreement. I simply can't wait to see what you manage to dredge up from that hunk of rock. We will, of course, be keeping tabs on your progress. Any and all artefacts you find will be turned over to us. You did read the fine print on that document, I assume." He added as an afterthought. His hand was still trapped within Marik's, firmly, but thankfully not cutting off his circulation. He had the faint impression that this was a man who'd had a bit of practice when it came to casually inflicting pain on others. The thought made him shiver. Marik did not miss this, and said mildly, "Cold? We do not particularly mind either way if the air conditioning is on or off. Your legal advisor, however, seems to think it is necessary." He finally released his hand.

Dr. Yoshida glanced at his advisor, sitting uneasily in the chair at the table. He wasn't a complete idiot, then. He too felt the tension in the air. He returned his gaze to Marik's, shaking his head. "I think we'll keep it on. We're from Japan, after all, and it simply does not experience the amount of heat that Egypt does. I must say I'm quite unused to it." He smiled a little, in an effort to relax the tension somewhat. Marik only smiled mockingly back. "Well," he said hesitantly, and sat down beside the sister, Ishizu. She had been silent through the exchange, but now she turned to him as he laid the document on the table. His signature was already on it —clear block characters in thick black ink. She and her brother had only to sign it and he would be out of their way. "I am accepting your offer with no changes," he told her, licking his teeth in anticipation. And he offered her a pen.

Ishizu was good-looking, he supposed, for an Egyptian. He thought the dark skin wasn't really to his liking, though. Her hair was pin straight and it neatly framed her oval face. She had on a golden circlet around the crown of her head (perhaps the ego ran in the family). He thought idly on this as he awaited Ishizu to take the pen from his fingers, but she did not seem inclined to do so. His train of thoughts screeched to a halt.

Her chin tilted forward slightly. "I must tell you, Doctor, that I have felt a troubling aura of darkness shrouding your person, ever since I met you. Take this how you will, but I believe fate has more in store for you than you would think."

He was inclined to think she was a little crazy —he did not believe in any sort of occult matter— but her voice did not waver as she spoke, and the seriousness in which she spoke it made her words eerie. He frowned, "Miss Ishizu, I can assure you that nothing troublesome will happen during this excavation. I have taken all the precautionary measures to insure that the dig will be run smoothly and efficiently."

She nodded. "Yes, I am certain you have. But that does not change the feeling I have. I am sure that something terrible will happen to you, if you are not careful. There is, perhaps, more to this dig than any of us realizes." His frown deepened. "You may find something entirely different than what you are looking for." He opened his mouth, as if to say something, but she then plucked the pen delicately from him. She leaned forward and found the space where her name was to go, and wrote it out slowly, as if trying to delay the inevitable.

Marik came forward and held his hand out for the pen. Ishizu looked up at him, and they gazed steadily at each other for a moment. Dr. Yoshida wondered at the look shared between them; deep and mystifying, it spanned through the years, the memories, and came into the space between them. Marik took the pen. His signature was scrawled more messily than his sister's, uncaring and abrupt. For another moment there was silence, and the unknown man shifted in the corner, bringing Dr. Yoshida's awareness to him. He had forgotten he was there. The bodyguard —if that was indeed what he was— seemed completely impassive, but as he looked closer, he thought there might be a line of worry between his brows. Otherwise, he was expressionless.

The legal advisor sitting at the table cleared his throat, and everyone turned to look at him. "If that is all," he said, coming over from the table, "I will take these and have them copied for each party." He took the papers from the table, flipping through them to make sure everything was in order. "Do you need me for anything else?" He asked this of Dr. Yoshida.

"No, I merely wanted you to oversee this and have the document placed on record for everyone." Dr. Yoshida stood up as well, glancing at each of the other occupants in the room once more. He offered his hand again —to the brother this time, who did not seem to like him shaking hands with his sister. Marik gripped it very briefly. "Now, I thank you for your time. I do hope you have a good trip back to Luxor. Goodbye, then." He made to leave.

"You will remember my warning, Dr. Yoshida," her clear voice rang out, like a bell. It was not a request, but more like a gentle reprimand. He did not like her tone.

"Of course, Miss. Ishizu. Goodbye," he said again, irritated. He left the trailer, the legal advisor trailing behind him. The metal door slammed shut with a clang, and the three Egyptians were left alone to the near-silence of the air conditioner.

Marik let his shoulders relax, if only fractionally. He looked again at his sister. "Do you really think something terrible is about to happen?" He questioned. The man in the corner drew closer, the line between his brows deepening in further anxiety. Ishizu eyed them both, then turned her eyes down to her slender hands folded in her lap. She let out a sad sigh.

"Although I have lost the Millennium Necklace, I still have not lost all of my senses, it seems. I do feel something surrounding this man, and this expedition. The string of fate connecting him to this dig is strong...too strong, I think. That is why I had to let him and his team do this, Marik. I sensed that he may have tried to search for the tombs anyway. Do you understand?" She paused, and Marik clenched his hands in the silence. She continued on, "I do not believe he listened to my warning. But I had to try anyway. I will tell you what I think: I believe he will find the tombs of the last priests of the high court. I believe they are all waiting in that cliff, like we have speculated on. We may have wanted the history to stay quiet, and for the priests to have their peace, but I do not think fate has that in store for us. He will find the tombs, but he will find them at a cost. I only hope that it is not so great a cost that we will regret what we have done." She stood from her place on the couch, taking each of their arms in her own, so that she stood between them while they walked.

The heat of the desert was welcome after the freeze in the trailer. This was their element —sand and rock and earth and cloudless blue sky. They each heaved a sigh. Marik spoke after a few minutes, once they reached their green jeep waiting for them a few tents over. "If we do, my sister, I swear that I will do whatever I can to rectify the matter. As the inheritor of the tomb keepers' legacy, I am bound to protect the Pharaoh...all of his land, his possessions, and all of the people who serve him. I promise I will defeat the darkness shrouding the dig. So don't worry." He sent her a firm look, an _I-can-do-anything_ look, a look reminiscent of the struggles he'd undergone in order to get to where he was today. Ishizu observed him, and noticed his hand flicking reflexively to his belt, reaching for something that was no longer there. Her sad mood worsened.

They reached the jeep, climbed in, and started back toward the city. Behind them, the excavation team started the engines of their own vehicles, about to travel down, down into the base of the little gorge, to the foot of the sheer rock cliff. And the breeze that had existed earlier in the morning started up again, and the team decided it would be a good day.

Dr. Yoshida chose his battles wisely. He took his team to very particular places to dig into the rock. He knew where the rock was loose and would come down on top of them if they tried to gouge a hole into it. But he could also see where the rock was not loose, where the thick stone of the cliff had crumbled away, but was still nearly indestructible from the elements of time. At these places he demanded the excavators to begin, and they did, carving a little away at a time from the hard wall before them. He still had his team work on the places with the loose earth and rock; they carefully chose the dirt and boulders that did not carry a load and had them moved away, to a place pre-determined as a dumping ground for what they dug apart. He was determined to get as much done with the small piece of today that they had —evening was nearly upon them, but they had perhaps another few hours before it was too dark to work.

There were no clues about where to search for the tombs in all the ground before them, no half-degraded pillars, no ruins of any sort. This was disappointing, but expected. The priests of the Nameless Pharaoh would not be buried in plain sight. It would make sense that such highly respected and revered members of ancient Egyptian society would have been afforded the best protection from tomb robbers as possible. Dr. Yoshida was not a tomb robber, but he was certainly determined to unearth every secret buried deep under the earth. And modern day archaeologists had what ancient tomb robbers did not: heavy machinery and technology.

They did not stop until the last rays of the sun dipped below the horizon, covering the dig site in a purple and pink haze of almost-darkness. Dr. Yoshida listened to the rumble of the machinery as it died away, and the chatter of voices as they packed away the materials that they were not going to leave at the site. He felt content, excited, and wholly satisfied. These were the moments he had been fighting the Ishtar family over. They could not possibly —not even remotely— realize the amazing experience he was having, the dreams he was unearthing. They were selfish, to be sure, to try and keep such wonderful history all to themselves. He was doing the whole world a favour. He was going to have his name written in scientific journals. He was sure of it.

There was a sudden uproar of shouts from far over a steep incline, past a low wall of rubble they were removing. Heart pounding in even greater excitement, Dr. Yoshida left his hand-tools to walk briskly up the hill. It was sandy, but there was a rough groove up the middle that was made by the excavator. He picked his way up the hill using this groove in the sand, not wanting to waste any energy in getting up the slope. He heard the voices more distinctly now: they were calling for the head of the excavation team. More curious workers were joining the trek up the hill, wondering at what could have caused a commotion so early in the dig. Not a discovery, surely? Something had broken, perhaps, a dump truck used for hauling dirt and rock had gotten stuck in the sinking sand.

Dr. Yoshida clamoured eagerly up the last patch of rubble. He came upon a hollowed space that had probably once been filled with a boulder before it had rolled off of the incline for some reason or another and had made the mess further down. At the top of the incline, stretching before this hollowed space, was a spider web of deep and shallow cracks in the earth. Presumably it had been made by the collapse of something beneath it, and the sand and earth and fallen down further to leave holes in the ground above. Dr. Yoshida could not guess at what could have collapsed, but he did not bother with such details. He was more interested in what was in the rock, after all, not the rock itself and the extenuating circumstances surrounding it.

A group of people were crowded around one such crack in the earth. It was narrow enough to jump across, possibly, but it would certainly be a risk not worth taking, for it was deep, too. Workers were shining bright flashlights down the hole, and pointing excitedly. Dr. Yoshida manoeuvred his way around the cracks in order to reach them. "What's going on here?" He demanded.

One of the men turned to him in delight, grinning toothily. "A find on our first day! We've sent for the posts to be pounded into the ground, and the ladder. And it's not too deep —we'll be out of here quickly, before it gets completely dark. Can you believe it? What luck!" Dr. Yoshida snatched a flashlight from the ground, and directed its light into the hole, heart skipping a mile a minute. He'd prove it to that Marik, that Ishizu, the greatness that he would show the world from his expedition!

He shone the light down into the darkness of the hole, bouncing it off rock and earth till he lit upon what they had found.

The Millennium Rod glinted golden rays in the Egyptian twilight.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

It was late afternoon in the city of Domino. Crowds filtered in and out of stores, lining up at coffee shops for a bite to eat while they rested their sore feet. Actually, this was a particular section of the downtown that was once known (and still is) as Battle City: a heaven on earth for duelists everywhere. Purchases from here generally ranged from the latest duel monster plush toy to an expensive high-level duel monster card. Your average person on the street here was likely to be your next opponent —duel disk systems flashed on many a person's arm. Posters jammed in store windows clamoured for attention, proclaiming a sure winning streak if you were to enter their store. There were widescreen televisions on nearly every building advertising for the game. They were courtesy of a man who once hosted a tournament in the city; giving it the now famous nickname.

Off of the main street which contained the Domino Arcade, there was a little dead-end alley which was somewhat hidden from sight by the slated roofs that sloped down from either side. There were heavy doors which led into either building, covered in graffiti. A metal dumpster was nestled in the corner of the alley. In the centre, there were three young men whom sat on little rickety chairs and were shuffling through cards on a rusted metal table between them. One of the men was quite tall and muscled, with a wide forehead and broad cheekbones. Another was by contrast lanky and boasted fiery red hair and glasses. The third man did not look nearly as old as the others. He was much shorter, for one thing, and in him there seemed to be a sense of innocence: completely sure of the world that he lived in, bound by rules that he himself had decided.

Unaware by the three, there existed a fourth person. He was dressed in odd clothing; hiking boots and a brown shawl, among other things. He had been looking for someone for a duel, and he thought one of these three might be appropriate. They seemed like they would be willing to do something for him, if he only offered the right thing in return. They were, after all, skulking out here in this back alley, which definitely suggested something about their characters. Never mind his own. He scuffed his feet against the cold concrete to alert them to his presence. All three looked up.

"Hey, who're you? Get outta here, we found this place first and we don't wanna be disturbed." Called the first with the red hair, flicking his fingers in a rude gesture.

He strode up to the table, unconcerned. "Hello, I'm looking for a duelist who would be interested in challenging a certain Yuugi Mutou to a duel," he said this casually, looking the red-head in the eyes.

All three of them jumped from their seats, as though he had said something incredibly threatening, and started yelling at him overtop of each other.

"You think you're funny, hey, old man—"

"Don't think you can just come in here and insult us like that—"

"We duelists have our pride, you know, we're not just going to let you push us around—"

The man held up both hands with wide eyes. "Hold on, hold on!" They quieted down a little to give him a chance to speak. He hadn't expected their animosity —he assumed they'd merely try to pressure him into getting a big reward out of it. "I don't know why you think I'm insulting you. I just want to see Yuugi in action —right in front of my eyes— and I simply haven't been able to find someone who can offer him a good duel," he hoped this would placate them a little, and was relieved to see their clenched fists relax.

The short man snorted in amusement. "You obviously have no idea what you just asked us, do you? Yuugi is the King of Games. He's unbeatable. So you can't just expect some random person off the street to challenge him to a _duel_," he crossed his arms and glared at him, "and what on earth were you planning on offering us in return, anyway? For a request like that?"

Ah, the man thought, now we are getting somewhere. He shifted on his feet slightly, reached into his pocket, and pulled out a wad of bills. "Money, of course. Right up front," he smiled mentally. He suspected they might be greedy, so this would be something they couldn't resist. But to his surprise, the three looked only annoyed and disinterested.

It was the tallest man who spoke now, running one big hand through his black hair. "Don't be stupid. Why would we want something like that?"

"Something like that?" He responded, a little bewildered. And then he got a good look a the table behind them —the stacks of carefully arranged dueling cards, the polishing solution they'd been using on their duel disks. He suddenly understood: these were true duelists (perhaps not honourable ones, but duelists nonetheless), and so the bargain would have to be completely different. He returned the bills to his pocket, and reached into a second, this time for a new purpose. He pulled out a deck of cards, noticing the expressions on their faces changing to ones of thinly veiled curiosity. "Forgive me for suggesting such a thing. Here, I will give this card to the person who will challenge Yuugi for me." He searched through the deck and drew a card; it was rare and would do nicely. He held it up for them to see.

"Look, Bones," said the big man to the shortest in excitement, "a zombie card for your zombie deck."

The name was strange, but as the duelist grew closer the man could see that it suited him. His face was pasty white and his cheeks were sunken in, and his hair was an abhorrent shade of grey. Bones leaned in to get a better look and beamed up at him. "Hey, mister. I'll duel for you if you give me that card —but I want the card before I start dueling." He had actually expected this, and saw no need to argue. The card meant nothing to him, and removing it from his deck was of no consequence. He handed the card to the man, and returned the rest to his pocket.

His red-headed friend spoke up. "Wait a minute here. How do you expect us to find Yuugi? It's not as if we know where he lives or anything." Eyes narrowed in suspicion.

He shot him a smirk and shook his head. "There's no need to find him at all. In fact, he's right on this street, currently playing games in the Domino Arcade. He shouldn't be too hard to spot, although he's wearing a hooded sweatshirt to hide his hair. Just get him out onto the street —I'll be watching." He added.

Bones did not appear to like his tone in the least. "Now, don't count on me winning. The most I can do is play for a few turns, you hear?" A nod from him. Bones paused a moment before asking, "And who are you, anyway?"

Shrugging, he decided it was fine if the boy knew. "You can call me Dr. Yoshida. Now, if you would kindly fulfill your end of the bargain," he stated.

The three friends shared a look before gathering their cards, donning their duel disks, and heading out onto the street. Dr. Yoshida came closer to the entrance to the alley, and watched them cross the street and walk towards the Domino Arcade. He did not even have to wait for them to find Yuugi; to his excitement the man was just exiting the arcade as the three approached.

Bones would not have recognized the face of the King of Games instantly, as he could only see his chin and the edges of his cheeks underneath his black hood. It was his clothing that gave him away: the black leather pants, the boots with the metal studs, the silver chain that hung from his black belt. There was a card holder attached to his belt, though no duel disk was latched onto his arm. Perhaps he carried one in the bag he had slung over one shoulder (Bones hoped so, or else there wouldn't be a duel at all). He was checking his wristwatch as Bones and his friends came closer. Bones cleared his throat and he looked up. If he couldn't tell for any other reason, then the last clue was a dead giveaway. Yuugi's rich purple eyes gazed in stunned recognition.

"Yuugi," Bones ran his fingers over his deck and looked at him in anticipation, "it's been a long time since we met in Duelist Kingdom, hasn't it?"

Yuugi's lips thinned into a straight line. "Yes, I suppose it has. I'm surprised to see you here. I haven't run into anyone from Duelist Kingdom in years," Yuugi told him, turning his head to glance at the two standing behind Bones. His expression transformed into own of dislike. "Sid and Zygor." He levelled a hard look at all of them. "You three still haven't apologized for forcing Joey into that duel, and for trapping my friends and I in that cave," he informed them.

"You still remember that, huh?" Sid chuckled, adjusting his glasses with one finger, "hey, if it suits you, Bones, Zygor and I will apologize...if you defeat Bones here in a duel, that is."

Yuugi's expression flickered for a moment, too brief for them to understand what it was that he was thinking. "Somehow I knew you'd say that," he sighed, looking up and down the street. The stores were packed, as per the usual on a weekend afternoon, and nearly every person that he could see sported a duel disk. "Shall we go somewhere less crowded?" He suggested, somewhat hopefully.

Bones laughed. His arm came up and out —the duel disk immediately started up in response, and launched two silver objects from beneath itself. They shot past on either side of Yuugi, and landed on the ground an equal distance apart from each other. Opening up to reveal a rainbow face, the two machines beeped to signal their activation. The duel disk itself combined both pieces of the field and lighted up, beeping as well. At all of this, people on the street started focusing their attention towards the two, and Bones turned away, walking some distance before turning again to face Yuugi. "Well? I'm waiting!"

Yuugi did not hesitate, but he did pause to adjust his hood and pull it down further over his eyes. He too backed up some distance, before setting down his bag and unzipping it, revealing his own duel disk. He attached it to his arm and activated the system. Two machines shot out of his disk, opening up on Bones' side of the field. The disk transformed and indicated it was ready. With one hand he pulled his cards from the card holder on his belt, and slid them into place. Four thousand life points lit up on the display screen. The game had begun.

Some people on the street had begun to gather on the edges of the gaming field, watching with interest. Others were ignoring the duel, seeing it as a common event in this part of the city. These people respected the game enough to walk around the field and not through it, however. Dr. Yoshida came out of the alley a little, noting that no one seemed to notice him in the least, in the light of the duel that had just started.

The traditional start-of-the-game words were spoken.

"Let's duel!"

Yuugi and Bones drew their hands. "Since I am the challenger, I'll go first!" Bones declared, "draw!" He took a moment to consider, then spoke again, placing cards on his field as he did so. "I play Magical Ghost in attack mode! And I equip it with my Malevolent Nuzzler magic card, which raises its attack by seven hundred points," The monster flickered into life before Bones, glowing green skin eerily transparent. Magical Ghost laughed wildly, yellow eyes peering at Yuugi. "I end my turn."

_Magical Ghost Dark_

_Zombie_

_ATK/2000 DEF/1400_

He had not been particularly looking forward to the duel, but now Yuugi felt his interest peaking at the sight of the very realistic hologram across from him. It was what had always made Duel Monsters so much more than an ordinary card game: the feelings of being trapped in a real battle, excited and anxious and pushed to his limits. _Knowing _he had the power to win as sure as he knew every card in his deck and every move that could break him. It was this rolled-up band of emotions that settled into him now, and he breathed out as he admitted that Bones had drawn out his duelist's instincts, that drive to give it his all. Magical Ghost was looking a little too smug with his field empty as it was, and she stared undaunted at him, cheeky laugh daring him to attack her now. Two thousand attack points, Yuugi acknowledged. She has a right to be a little cheeky. He decided to knock those points down a notch. "Draw!" He cried.

He surveyed his cards with a practiced eye, selecting the ones he wanted quickly. "I activate De-Spell." The jewelled purple lock appeared on the field, followed by a golden key. Magical Ghost let out a harsh cry, pulling at her green hair. Bones too let out a cry, angrily removing his magic card and placing it in the graveyard. He had decided against paying the cost in order to return it to the top of his deck, then. "Now, with only one thousand, three hundred attack points, your Magical Ghost is an easy target." He chided. There was a murmur of approval from the gathered crowd. The powered-up zombie would have been too difficult to defeat otherwise. "Now, I summon Blackland Fire Dragon in attack mode!" Yuugi announced.

_Blackland Fire Dragon Dark_

_Dragon_

_ATK/1500 DEF/800_

"Destroy his Magical Ghost!" He demanded, pointing at the shrieking creature, who was now gripping her pointed purple hat in fear. His dragon, roaring a challenge at the enemy, flapped its giant wings to take to the skies. The wind blew through the crowd, whipping about Yuugi. There was a sudden gasp from the onlookers. Yuugi cast a confused glance around, only to find everyone staring in awe at him. He realized with a bite of irritation that his hood had been blown off by his dragon. The spiky burgundy locks and the blond bangs were easily his most identifiable feature. With his identity revealed, the entire street suddenly grew a whole lot more crowded. Yuugi wearily blamed Kaiba and his incredibly realistic virtual holograms. People were shouting at each other in excitement.

"It's the King of Games! I can't believe it!"

"He _never_ accepts a duel from a nobody! Who is this guy?"

"It's someone from Duelist Kingdom! I think I saw him on TV once!"

"Go get him, Yuugi!"

The dragon was still commencing its attack. It took a dive, and slammed head-on into the ghost, who did not seem so transparent anymore. She let out one final scream before dissipating in a blaze of light. The blaze blinded Bones; he hid his eyes behind his arm with a quiet curse. His life points decreased down two hundred on his disk's screen.

His successful attack made Yuugi smile good-naturedly. Bones did not seem nearly as delighted, however. Yuugi could hear the crowd whispering, and attempted to block the sound out in order to concentrate.

Bones narrowed his eyes and straightened his back. This surprised him, as he had remembered the younger man as being somewhat more of a nervous player who needed the support and peer pressure of his friends in order to make his moves. So he had grown some confidence in the time that Yuugi had not seen him. "Don't let him scare you, Bones!" Sid waved his arms from the sideline, calling out encouraging words. Zygor gave him a thumbs-up. He took one look at his friends and offered a weak smile

The duel went on, and face up as well as face down cards were added to the game. Yuugi's field welcomed Curse of Dragon to the game, and Bones activated a field spell to give his decaying Giant Axe Mummy a power boost. Bones made to attack.

The crowd was in an uproar over the possible outcome. Surely the King of Games would not allow his monster to be destroyed by his opponent so easily. Bones pointed at the yellow dragon hovering above Yuugi. "Now, destroy his monster!" He cried out, and the Mummy hefted its axe with both hands, rushing towards the dragon. Impossibly, it leaped into the air, raising the axe over its head in order to deliver the crushing blow. The crowd was yelling their names in excitement.

A rush of enjoyment slid through Yuugi's muscles as he activated a face down. "Mirage Spell! Negate his attack and inflict damage equal to the Mummy's attack points!" Bones reeled backwards, horrified. The Giant Axe Mummy, about to come down on the dragon's head, was suddenly blown backward onto Bones' side of field. Bones himself dropped to his knees and let out a screech at the sudden rush of magic that blew through his life points.

The crowd was going crazy with the sudden upset. Attack rebutted and returned easily, it looked like Yuugi had planned further ahead than his opponent. Suitably hidden in the crowd was Dr. Yoshida, who was paying close attention to the moves that Yuugi was making. He had been keen to find out if Yuugi's ability was anything like the news said it was, and this duel was proving it true. He was the only one in the crowd, perhaps, that noticed the obvious lack of a certain necklace dangling from Yuugi's neck.

It was the darkness in his mind, the one that had been pushing him to do all these things, that called out to him now. He could feel it at the edge of his consciousness —like a black disease, crushing out his desires and his intentions— pulsing like a wave. He had felt it ever since his team had discovered the Millennium Rod in that hole, as sure as he could remember. He fingered the golden item, hidden from sight under the folds of his shawl. It pricked his fingers with something like a shock, and the darkness came clearer in his mind now, pressing so hard he found sweat forming on his forehead.

{He's not lost his ability, it seems, even without the Millennium Puzzle. Though, we should learn why he does not have it.}

That voice in his mind, it couldn't possibly be his, it sounded so completely different than him, so cold, malicious and...

{Still, I think that without the Pharaoh's strength, he will be defeated.}

It said such strange things, this voice, things he knew nothing about, things he couldn't possibly have thought. Yet it couldn't be anyone's thoughts other than his, he was the only person in his mind, after all, the only one...

{A new strategy is in order. Using the cards we possess will not be enough.}

Cards! He'd never had any desire to play such games before. He'd been happy back in Egypt, prying apart ancient history, learning everything he could. He had no idea how to play this Duel Monsters game, he only knew to collect as many cards as he could, in order to have a variety. In fact, he had no desire to collect the cards at all, or even to leave Egypt in order to come to this city. But the voice...it was forcing him to do these things, crushing out all the other thoughts in his head but the ones that it wanted him to think. It had told him to find this duelist, to observe him closely. And when it demanded something from him, he knew he could not resist, or else he'd find himself completely shut out from his own mind...

{Soon I will have my revenge.}

...he'd lose consciousness, and then wake up somewhere else, with no recollection of what had happened or where he was. He'd tried to get rid of the Millennium Rod once, before he left for Egypt, sensing how horribly wrong he was for taking the object without permission. The darkness had hit him then, and he'd woken up days later, already in Japan. Then the voice had been in his head, demanding that no more problems come from him. Afraid, and desperate, he'd agreed. He knew he was going crazy, there couldn't really be any other explanation. Still, he clung to the thoughts that sooner or later, the voice would go away. The one that sounded...

{I'll trap him in the Shadow Realm for what he has done to me. Yuugi!}

...like it was born from the depths of anger and hatred.

Yuugi's opponent had risen from the ground. He stood on shaky legs, but he was standing, at least. Bones had put up a fight, but it was becoming obvious to the onlookers that he would not last much longer. His opponent was on a totally different level, far above him; relaxed and controlled moves neither too much for Bones to handle, nor too little. It was as if Yuugi had judged his skill and had compensated his own to match it, giving the illusion of an even match. The average duelists missed this completely, while the experts looked on and admired this skilled gamer.

Considering his next options critically, Yuugi made the decision to end it. Summoned Skull joined the field beside his Dragon, complimenting the dragon's snarls with its own. Holographic thunder crackled overhead in a miniature storm brooding over the street. Lightning flashed in short bursts and Yuugi's fiend stepped forward to remove the only obstacle preventing him from reaching Bones' life points.

"Lightning Strike!"

The fiend let out a growl, and the storm clouds overhead swirled ominously. Raising its claws over its head, the monster was suddenly alight with lightning that shot down from clouds. It directed the attack at the Mummy, who blew up in a powerful explosion that sent Bones off his feet and into the arms of Zygor. The sound was deafening. In the pause that followed he gave Curse of Dragon the signal to finish off his opponent's life points. And then the dragon flapped its wings, rearing back its head as a fireball formed in its mouth. The fire burst out from its mouth, and spun down to Bones' side of the field, crashing into the ground and once more causing a shockwave. Yuugi waited for the smoke to clear.

The holograms faded from view, monsters and field spell disintegrating before his eyes and confirming that the duel was over. Yuugi deactivated his duel disk, causing the hologram system to fly back to his disk. Bones' duel disk did the same. The crowd was ablaze with chatter, but Yuugi tuned it out as he approached Bones. He listened as Sid made an annoyed remark about how he had not been able to use his new card. He stopped a few feet away from the three, who looked up at him uncertainly. "You said you would apologize if I won the duel," he reminded Sid. But it was Bones who spoke up.

"Back then," he began hesitantly, "we were sure we wouldn't make it far if we didn't team up with Bandit Keith —the intercontinental champion at the time— in order to get to Pegasus' castle. Look, we were just following his orders. He had promised that he'd take us all to the top if we helped him out."

"Of course," interjected Yuugi, "he betrayed you in the end."

"That's true," said Zygor, scratching his head a little, "he stole all our star chips in order to reach the castle. We had to leave the island." Yuugi nodded in understanding.

Bones continued, "We all realize we did some pretty mean things, Yuugi. Hey, everyone makes mistakes. But ever since that white-haired duelist sent us to something he called the Shadow Realm, boy, let me tell you: we learned from our mistakes. We'll never do anything horrible again, you can count on it." Sid and Zygor nodded furiously in agreement.

Yuugi's eyes widened and his mouth rounded into an 'o'. "White-haired duelist? What happened? And when? Tell me," he demanded. His heart was suddenly thumping much harder, and he found he had to remind himself to breathe.

They all were frowning now. "It was back when Seto Kaiba was hosting the Battle City Tournament," Sid began to explain, and Yuugi let out a small breath in relief, relaxing his tensed shoulders. He didn't even consider why he had gotten so anxious. Whether or not a threat was possible had taken a backseat to the rushing in his head. "It was this white-haired guy with this odd-looking golden necklace. He challenged Bones to a duel for all of his locator cards. And when he lost, he sent us all to this crazy place—" he stopped suddenly, glancing at the other two before saying, "well, you probably wouldn't believe me. Anyway, we decided to change for the better after that. No more tricks or anything." There was more nodding.

Yuugi considered them for a minute. Joey had told him a similar story about how Bakura had gotten all of his locator cards, so he thought that what Sid was saying was probably true. Then, "I believe you. So you're sorry for what you did to my friends and I?" He asked, needing the confirmation.

"Yes," said Bones, and the other two nodded again. Yuugi smiled.

"Then I forgive you. And thanks." He walked back and grabbed his bag, left forgotten on the ground, and slung it over his shoulder. There was a sudden call from Bones.

"Hey, Yuugi. Just answer me one thing. Why did you use all of your old cards? Why weren't you dueling with your strongest monsters? With the deck you had in the Battle City tournament?"

Yuugi was silent as he returned the disk to his bag and the cards to the holder on his belt. Then he turned to Bones, his face a mask. "I haven't dueled with that deck since—" he faltered, and a sad smile came across his face, "...for a long time. See you around."

Yuugi approached the crowd warily, expecting people to part to allow him through. He had no such luck. They swarmed around him, shoving paper at him, their duel cards, anything they could find in order to get an autograph. People were pulling out cameras, snapping photos. Yuugi held up both arms in front of his eyes. "Excuse me, please just let me through," he pleaded. Then he thought he heard a voice he recognized.

"Hey, Yuugi, need a hand?" He knew that brown spike of hair anywhere —it was his friend Tristan. He took his hand gratefully, and Tristan raised a shout. "Step aside, the King of Games wants through. Move over, kid!" He snarled at the closest person, who hurriedly backed up. Tristan dragged Yuugi through the crowd, pushing aside people who wouldn't get out of the way. Then they reached the edge, and Yuugi saw a second face he was more than happy to see. Tristan dropped his hand as a tall blond-haired individual grabbed him under his arm, using his other hand to ruffle his hair.

"Want me to duel 'em for you, Yuugi?" Yuugi dislodged himself carefully from his arm, smiling a little. Joey smirked at him, before looking over his shoulder at the crowd still calling out to Yuugi and demanding his attention. They were edging closer, mindful of Tristan but not of Joey. "Nah, guess not, hey? We better get outta here before these guys get too crazy. Come on." And they were off at a run, dashing down the streets and away from the crowd. The crowd came after them, of course, but Joey and Tristan led Yuugi down a few short-cuts and soon they had lost the crowd. They slowed to a walk.

"It's a good thing you guys showed up, or I might have never gotten out of there," said Yuugi. He peered at them from under his bangs with a thoughtful expression. "What were you doing over there, anyway?"

Joey laughed. "Same thing as you were. Playing some games at the arcade. And I would have stayed longer, too, if it weren't for the commotion outside. So we walked out an' saw you. I guess we missed each other at the arcade. I guess trying to hide your hair didn't work out too well for you." He reached over Yuugi's head and pulled the hood back on. "Actually, it'd probably be best if you kept this up for now."

Yuugi nodded in agreement. "Well, thanks."

"No problem," smiled Tristan.

They were heading back to Yuugi's house, a one-of-a-kind game shop that had been around for years. It was in a more peaceful section of the city, closer to the residential area rather than the shopping district. The three friends entered the shop in light conversation, dragging their shoes a little against the doormat as they came in. The bell attached to the glass door let out a small chime. They heard raised voices and a television on in the living room past the counter, and curiously went to go investigate. "Hey, I'm home," called Yuugi to the elderly man sitting on the far couch, utterly engrossed in what was happening on the screen.

Across from the man on another couch sat a young woman, sipping some tea. She looked up as they walked in and set the cup down on the low table in front of her. "Hey, you guys. I was waiting for you to show up. Your grandpa and I were just watching the news, Yuugi, and you would never guess what's the top story today," she exclaimed. Yuugi tilted his head a little, contemplative.

Joey grinned at her. "Kaiba invented some new duel toy, Téa?"

"Nope," said Téa, "one of Yuugi's duels was recorded this afternoon. Every news channel out there knows about it." There was a groan from Yuugi. Téa continued on, oblivious to his discomfort. "They've been raving about how you beat some kid in only a few turns, Yuugi. Who was it?"

Joey and Tristan looked at Yuugi in admiration. The elderly man turned away from the television screen, currently showing a commercial, and puffed out his chest and let out a chuckle. "That's my grandson. You weren't expecting any less from him, were you? Where do you think he got his skills from?"

"Certainly not from you, old man," Joey joked, "he learned all his tricks on his own!" Tristan shot him a look, and Joey added quickly, "well, with a little help from the Pharaoh, of course." This time it was Téa who gave him a look, but Joey only returned it with a confused one of his own. Then he caught the sad smile on Yuugi's face, and made to change the subject. "But hey, that's gotta be a new record or somethin'!"

Yuugi was about to respond, but just then the news came back on. "We're back with our top interest story, for all you duelists out there. We have footage for you of Yuugi Mutou's latest duel. This doesn't happen often. The King of Games just doesn't duel anybody. So we did some research and came up with some background info on his opponent, Bones." The news anchor on the screen was replaced by a photo of Bones, complete with data on his deck, panelling across the bottom of his picture. "As you can see he isn't much of a duelist. And we're about to prove it to you —with the quickest duel ever recorded on this television station!" And the recording of the duel came on, showing their battle from a time shortly after Bones had played his first cards. Yuugi was surprised he hadn't seen the video camera that caught footage from that early on in the duel...those reporters were far more intelligent and sneakier than he had realized.

"Bones will be famous for a few days after this, huh," Tristan muttered, "he'll be known everywhere as the guy that Yuugi spared the time of day for." Yuugi winced mentally.

The footage ended. "For all of you who think he might have lost his touch after a couple of years out of the tournaments, you've got another thing coming. Yuugi is as good as ever, beating this latest young man in only a few turns! And to top it all off: he didn't even use his strongest cards! Bones was beaten by such common cards as De-Spell and Blackland Fire Dragon. Obviously, the King of Games doesn't think he'll get much of a challenge anymore, to be using those cards. Is there anybody out there besides the famous Seto Kaiba who will give the reigning duelist champion a run for his money?"

Yuugi could name a few, but he didn't bother saying it out loud. Joey was asking him a question. "Why'd you duel him?"

"I just happened to run into him on the street. He wanted a duel from me, and I wasn't really interested. But, he and his friends offered an apology for what they did to us back in Duelist Kingdom if I won. So I couldn't refuse. They did apologize...and I think they meant it, too. So the duel was worth it." Yuugi explained.

Téa stood from the couch. "I'm glad to hear it. They must have wanted to change for the better."

The three stayed for a short while after that, as it was getting dark. Dinner was prepared and eaten, and Yuugi retired to his bedroom for the night, to study for a few hours before going to bed. He had classes at the local college in the morning —Egyptology, among other things. The hours passed quickly, and soon the books were closed. Yuugi dropped his books in his bag and headed back downstairs for a glass of water. He paused at the foot of the stairs, staring across the hall into the living room, where the television was still on.

The news had proceeded to show various clips of Yuugi's previous duels. There he was on the screen: the deeper voice, the determined look on his face. There was the casual smirk that lined his cheeks as he drew a card, announcing his imminent victory. There was the silver link chain that hung from his neck. There was the golden pyramid dangling from that chain.

Yuugi ascended the stairs without the glass of water. A heavy silence had fallen on his heart, but strangely his mind could not let go of the noises issuing from the television, even when he should have no longer been able to hear them.

"_You'll be safer if you let me handle Pegasus, Yuugi..."_

He closed the bedroom door quietly and slid into his bed, burying his head under the blankets. The warm darkness should have been comforting, but it only left him feeling hollow. He was overreacting again —Joey would be giving him an angry speech, if he could see him now. Sighing, Yuugi told himself to get a grip. He had more important things to think about. He had classes tomorrow. He had to be careful about attracting attention, now that his face was all over the news again. He had to get some sleep, or tomorrow he wouldn't be very alert. He had that local ten-and-under duel tournament that he was agreeing to appear at in a few weeks, in order to present a trophy to the winner. To encourage the younger duelists to try their very hardest. Ah, he thought, his mind slipping into unconsciousness. Dueling...

"_I've been known as Yami..."_

"_Well, Yami, I'm glad to call you my friend."_


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The alarm clock sounded only one note before it was silenced. The darkness in the room was absolute, but its occupant knew its way around easily enough, and soon entered the closet across from the king-size bed. A light was flipped on. A young man stood by a rack of suits, holding one hand over his mouth as he tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. He stretched his arms over his head and considered what to wear. He would have to skip the flashy white coat today; there was a board meeting that afternoon and he thought that he should make an effort to look like a businessman rather than a duelist. Well, the white suit would do nicely and make the same impact, perhaps. He pulled the clothes on without a second thought, buttoning up the jacket as he crossed his bedroom to grab a cell phone lying on the side table. The alarm clock displayed the numbers '4:30' in bright red. Satisfied that he was making good time, the man left the room and found his way downstairs into the kitchen. It was a grand kitchen, with an island that housed a second miniature refrigerator and freezer for his convenience. The tiling between all the cupboards had cost quite a fortune, and the countertop was custom-cut. Beside the stainless steel corner sink was a little black-and-white coffee maker. Reaching this, the man filled the machine and started it up. It was a pity, he thought, that with all the advances in holographic technology that he had made, no one had bothered to find a better and faster way to brew a cup of coffee. Maybe he should invent one. Yes, and it would start up instantly, every morning, and it would keep the coffee hot, and it would be programmed to select whether one wanted decaf or regular—

—there was a beeping noise from the machine. Startled out of his thoughts, he looked down to find the pot full. He filled a mug and left the room to descend to another level in the house. He walked past one of the many sitting rooms and came to a wall where, at a specific joint, it could be pushed open to reveal a hidden room. Inside was a wide hallway with bookcases lining the walls. He had entered in the middle of the hall: to his right was a trap door that led up to the grounds just inside the brick fence around his property. It was a secret entrance he had built when the place was constructed, and he had used it (but only once). To his left there seemed to be a dead-end: another bookcase. Pulling a particular book, however, revealed a metal door behind the shelving. It was protected with an eye scanner, one that only opened the door if either he or his younger brother looked into it.

He entered the room behind the metal door. It was his personal computer terminal, able to access any and all of his corporation's computer systems anywhere in the world. Three screens were set above the computers, and five chairs were located about the room, for each particular system on the table in front of them. He took a drink from his cup as he activated the starting sequence. His company logo flashed onto the main screen, and a computerized woman's voice sounded from the speakers interspersed throughout the room. "Running identity verification protocol. Please state your name."

"Seto Kaiba."

There was a minute of silence save for the sound of the whirring fans in the computers, as his voice was being processed. Then: "Ah, good to see you again. It's been a while, hasn't it?" The voice taunted. The screens flashed into life, brightly displaying his name.

Seto didn't even blink an eye. "A day." The program liked to tease him, though he found he didn't mind. It was an intelligent system that he had designed personally, and he had long ago decided not to adjust it —it just wasn't at the top of his priority list. "Open up the information on my company's stocks, as per usual." He demanded.

The voice did not seem interested. "You have more important things to do right now, I'm afraid. An unknown hacker had been accessing the computer mainframe located in the complex used to house your virtual reality system in order to unlock high security doors." Seto was suddenly much more awake than he should have been for so early in the morning. He set down the coffee mug and attached a headset to his ears, swinging a chair around so that he could sit in front of the primary monitor.

"The virtual game world or my adoptive father's virtual creation?"

His program came up with a irritated tone to match his own. "The latter, I'm afraid."

"The only way to access that mainframe is from this terminal or from inside the facility itself," Seto stated.

"Bingo," said the program, "this is one smart hacker to be able to do it from outside. You don't think that this guy is after the technology used to preserve Noah Kaiba's body or his mind, do you?" Seto scowled at the screen, reaching a hand into his pocket for his cell phone. He flipped it open and dialled a number.

Noah Kaiba. He had been a miracle years back. After a fatal accident that should have cost him his life, his father had used his vast resources and virtual research in order to send the boy's mind into a world of his own creation. A virtual world for Noah to live in, while his body rested in the real world. He had been placed in a tank that would keep his body alive, un-ageing and unchanging, until one day when technology might have advanced far enough to allow him to retake his own body. Although; a long time ago there had been a deadly crash in the virtual world that Noah's mind rested in. Seto remembered it like yesterday: the explosion that had nearly destroyed his blimp, and the ship that housed the virtual systems going up in flames, sending powerful shoots of water up into the air. The smoke and heat had spread like a wave, threatening to overtake the blimp, but somehow he had made it out alive. The ship had not, however, with all of its data going down along with it. Years after, Seto had come upon the location of Noah's body, and the system which held the original data for the virtual world. He had the lab technicians reboot the system, and rebuilt the world from scratch. Though Noah's body remained in perfect condition, sadly, his mind had not responded to the computer system since then. Seto knew the odds...the likelihood of Noah's mind surviving the data crash was extremely low. But he refused to shut the labs down. Noah was a Kaiba, after all, and they tended to defy the odds.

His phone had stopped ringing, and there was the sound of a machine beeping, the tone signalling that perhaps the other phone was disconnected or the line was busy. His scowl deepening, Seto hung up and immediately dialled another number. It was quite early in the morning, but there should be someone on duty. The call was answered. "This is the head of the lab speaking." The voice sounded weary, but awake.

"It's Seto Kaiba," he intoned.

"Ah —Mr. Kaiba. Good morning. I haven't had the pleasure of speaking to you in a while." The man on the other end of the line now sounded mildly nervous, but he seemed to hold the feeling in check. He continued, "I assume you're calling to get an update on Noah's condition?" Of course he wasn't. For such a trivial matter, he would have phoned at a more acceptable time, but there was no need to tell the man that just yet. The information could be useful. "There's no change in the activity of the systems connected to his mind, according to the monitors." Still no response, then, Seto thought. "The virtual world is still empty."

Seto changed the topic. "I'm calling to inform you that there's been a breach in the security. Furthermore, there was no answer when I tried to contact them. It's possible that the intruder has overcome the guards and has entered the building you're in. I advise you to call for back-up." He tapped at the keyboard in front of him while he spoke, bringing up the complex's security system via his satellites. His mind was far ahead of this, though, pondering the unknown hacker's next move. Since Noah's body was untouched, he decided that it was not the goal of the hacker to learn about the technology used to preserve his mind or his body. It was highly valuable and expensive technology, as only one man (his adoptive father, Gozaburo, Noah's father) had ever accomplished sending the entirety of his mind, and Noah's, into a virtual world. It was strange that this person was not after this. Also, it did not leave a lot of possibilities left for what the intruder was up to.

"Oh! Well, I'll get right on it." The lab head stuttered.

The security camera footage came up on all of the screens, each viewpoint outlined in a black box. "Search for the intruder," Seto told his computer.

"Already doing so," the program flipped through the camera views on each of the screens, eliminating ones that did not contain what they were looking for, until he was left with only one screen of boxes. The top cameras showed the damage that had been done by the intruder: guards lay seemingly unconscious on the asphalt outside of the building. There were a few screens that indicated the path the person had taken through the building's halls: security doors were standing open and lights were on where they should be off. And then there was a final camera view, which showed a particular hall that Seto recognized. The thick steel door at the top of the screen was shut, and a little metal box beside it glowed in red, indicating it that was locked. Someone entered the field of view.

"There! Enlarge the screen," he commanded, and his program did so obligingly. The figure was cloaked, but appeared to be male, judging by the height and the broad shoulders. The man walked up to the door, which required handprint identification to enter. The boots he wore thumped against the linoleum flooring. The sound echoed throughout his small computer room, magnified by the speakers placed strategically throughout the room. Seto intently watched the screen, memorizing every detail. The man reached a hand up, then drew back his hood. He was old, likely over forty. His brown hair was cropped short, and his skin was faintly tanned. He appeared Japanese. His clothing was especially strange (the cloak and the hiking boots seemed out of place in the bleach-white hallways).

He was telling the head technician that was still on the line to send the back-up security to the hallway that he could see on-screen. The intruder would never be able to make it past the door, of course, but he didn't want him turning around and escaping. The head technician replied that he had done as he had asked, and that security was on its way. Seto watched the man on the screen. Now he was reaching under his cloak for something. His hand came out, and between two fingers was a duel monster card. He held the card out, facing the door. Seto looked on in confusion. What did the man think he was doing? With his other hand he was reaching beneath his cloak again. Seto was suddenly on his feet, breath leaving his lungs in a startled gasp. His eyes widened as he stared at the screen in disbelief. "It can't be...there must be something wrong with the camera! The Millennium Rod!"

Indeed, the man held this golden object in his hand, and now he began to raise it above his head. The Rod glowed brightly, and then the duel card was also shining from his hand. There was a noise like a great beast snarling, and then a monster appeared, leaping from the light of the card. The monster landed with a loud thump on the floor. It was akin in looks to an ogre, and it towered over the man by at least a meter. Its green skin was painted red with barbaric markings, and its massive fists were curled over its bulging stomach, which it pounded with another snarl. A black belt was cinched tight over a flimsy roan fabric which draped to its knees. Seto thought he recognized the beast —but it couldn't be, could it— as Terra the Terrible, a fiend type duel monster.

The man said nothing, but merely pointed a finger at the metal door. Growling and gnashing its teeth, the fiend rushed forward and punched its fist into the metal. It dented heavily. Huffing, the monster pulled back its fist and again pounded the door, unmistakeably breaking through the metal. With both hands now, the fiend gripped one edge of the jagged hole left from its punch and yanked, pulling the door open to the side. With the door now open, the alarm started to sound. It blared loudly in Seto's computer room, but he didn't bother to turn down the noise. His heart was pounding too wildly for him to think. Duel monsters! Coming to life and breaking apart doors! This just could not be happening. Terra the Terrible answered another of the man's gestures, and now it began to punch a hole in the wall beside the handprint identification box. Reaching in, it ripped into the electrical circuit and tore apart all of the electrical cords. The lights went off in the hall, and the alarm stopped sounding instantly.

This was the facility which was used to house Noah's mind and body, and it was a facility used to contain the computers which housed the virtual world Noah had lived in. Beyond the door the man had presumably entered (the camera seemed to run on the same circuit as the lights, and his footage had been cut) was a set of the original virtual pod prototypes as well as the later more advanced versions. So this man was not after the technology used to send Noah into the virtual world...but rather the technology of the virtual world itself. Seto slammed his hands onto the console and cried out angrily. The facility had been built long ago by his adoptive father, and as Seto was finding out, it was not up to his standards in backup systems. There was no emergency lighting, and now he couldn't see or hear anything that was happening due to his lack of footage. There would definitely be some changes made in the building. He just had not thought it was important before now.

Seto raised his cell phone to his ear once more. The head of the lab was still on the line. "I want you to call me back once the intruder is caught." He snapped, and ended the call without bothering to wait for a response.

His computer program had been silent before, but now it sorted through the footage on the screen and downloaded everything that had been recorded of the incident. "Do you want me to do anything else?" The woman's voice asked sweetly.

Seto detached his headset. He took one look at his coffee, which was now inevitably cold. "No." He turned and left the room, and returned up two levels, moving quickly up the stairs. He entered his bedroom and went to his side table, pulling open a drawer. Reaching inside, he retrieved a brown leather cord on which was hung a locket in the shape of a duel card. He left his room and walked down the hall a ways, pausing at a closed door. He banged loudly. "Mokuba, get up." He demanded. There was no response, and so he banged again, harder. "Mokuba."

The was a faint swish of fabric rubbing against fabric, and then an annoyed groan. He listened as a pair of feet padded up quietly to the door. It opened, and there stood Mokuba, rubbing his eyes tiredly. His long black hair lay tangled across his shoulders, sticking out in odd directions from rolling in his sleep. "Big brother," yawned Mokuba, using a term that he should have dropped long ago, when he had first entered his teen years. Seto admitted to himself that he still liked it nevertheless. "It's not even six o'clock yet," he complained.

Seto opened his fingers, showing the card locket that rested in the palm of his hand. "This is important, Mokuba. I want you to take this and go retrieve my dueling deck from the office tower. The same place where I locked my deck up once before." His expression was serious, and Mokuba sensed that his brother was not in the mood for joking around.

"You'll be needing it?" Mokuba queried, his hands dropping to his sides. He took in his brother's appearance: the determined look in his eyes, the thin scowl marring his face. Something was wrong. And it was not about the meeting he had that afternoon.

"Not now. But possibly quite soon."

"Okay. I'll leave right away." He took the locket from his brother's hand. Seto gave him a brief nod. Mokuba would ask no more questions of his actions —he trusted his brother completely and would do whatever he found necessary. Mokuba closed the door, and as Seto moved down the hall he could hear him on the phone with their driver: "Look, I don't care how early it is..." Assured that his brother would fulfill his request and return home soon, he went back to the computer room.

The downloaded files were still waiting for him on the computer screen. Now that he had a complete record of what had transpired, it was time to go through the files. Before he could, however, his phone rang. Good, the intruder has been caught, thought Seto. "Kaiba here."

"Sir, begging your pardon, but the person who entered the building seems to have escaped," rushed the head technician.

"_What_?" Seto ground out from between his teeth.

"Not only that," said the technician, stumbling a little over his words in his hurry to get them out, "he or she has stolen the access codes to the virtual world as well as the blueprints for the virtual pods. We're searching the grounds, but—"

Furious, Seto barked out new orders. "Do that. And search the area for any clues that could have been left behind. I want a name. And clean up the mess the intruder caused." He snapped the phone shut. His day had just gone from terrible to downright ugly. The codes were not enough to gain entry to the virtual world on their own, but with the blueprints, the man could have a pod built, and then he could piggyback onto their system. This way, he would not have to design and program his own virtual world. There was a problem: the codes would be difficult to rewrite. It would take reprogramming of the entire system to respond to the new codes and block the old ones. He did not know how fast it could be done, and likely the intruder would have already had a pod built before then. The situation was now an absolute mess.

Thinking quickly, he opened his phone again and called a new number. He breathed out steadily as it rang, trying to calm himself down. It would not due to sound so out-of-control. A woman picked up the phone. It was his cook, carefully selected and tested out of a list of possible candidates. She had been working for the two brothers for many years now, and was not surprised at his call. "I won't be needing your services until later today. Don't bother coming until lunch." He informed her, and she agreed, no questions asked. He had done this many times over the years, switching plans at the last minute and giving his employees little notice. They had all learned to accept his habits, and he had amassed, you could say, somewhat of a loyal group of people who all supported his decisions and weren't too bothered by his actions. This had become quite useful to him.

He pulled open a laptop and slotted one end of a cord into it, and the other end into the computer in front of him. "Send all of the files to this computer," he told his program, and a small hourglass appeared on screen, signifying that the files were being moved onto his portable computer. Once this was done, he placed the laptop in a silver briefcase and told the program to shut down.

There was one more call to be made.

The ringing went on for quite a while before a groggy voice was heard through the speakers. "Hello, this is the Mutou residence, what—"

Seto smiled, though the speaker could not see it. "Yuugi, it's me." He would know who it was.

"Kaiba," came the surprised exclamation. There was a short pause. "What —I mean, it's good to hear from you, really, but did you know it's not even six in the morning..."

"Listen, Yuugi. I'm a busy man. I don't have time to waste on an explanation. I've decided to pay you a visit, and I'm going to be there in approximately an hour." He examined his fingernails while he waited for a reply.

A sigh. "Well, could you at least tell me what this is all about?"

"No. But it's important." Seto responded, vaguely irritated.

The sound of shuffling feet was heard through the phone, then a flap of papers. "Well, I have classes this morning, starting at eight..." he hedged.

Good, then it was a yes. "You'll make it in time. This won't take long." He clipped.

"All right." Murmured Yuugi, accepting his terms.

He hung up. For a moment he stared at the phone in his hand, thinking that perhaps he had gone a little soft over the years. Normally, he would have just showed up, but he had actually taken the time to phone him. Shaking his head, Seto decided it wasn't worth pondering. He trudged upstairs into the kitchen. Once he set down the briefcase, he began the task of making himself and Mokuba breakfast. He wasn't much of a cook, but he could do some basic recipes, at the very least. Once finished, he packed the food in a bag and sat down on a cushioned bench in his entrance hall. Outside through a window, he could see the edges of the sun beginning to rise, blushing pink and orange on the horizon.

He did not have to wait long for his brother to come back. As soon as he saw the black limousine pulling up the long driveway, he turned the handle of one of the double doors and stepped outside. The door slammed shut in his wake. A dead silence loomed over the mansion, settling into its pores. Seto Kaiba climbed in his limousine, and his younger brother handed him his dueling deck.

The top three cards were the Blue-Eyes White Dragons, and just under them was the Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. They glimmered under his gaze. Seto confirmed that no other cards were missing. He looked at his brother, staring wide-eyed at him in the dim lighting of the limousine. There was a second silver briefcase on his lap: one which contained a variety of rare and powerful cards that he could interchange with the ones in his deck, and which also contained his duel disk. Mokuba offered him his card locket.

Carefully placing his deck in an inner pocket of his suit jacket, he accepted the locket and returned it to its rightful place around his neck. The driver was waiting patiently in the front seat, the divider down so that he could hear Seto's orders. "Take us to the Game Shop," he commanded, and the driver nodded, pushing a button to slide the divider up once again.

The limo started back down the drive.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Yuugi sat in an uncomfortable stool that was set behind the counter in the shop. He was waiting for Kaiba to arrive, as he had said he would do so when he had called earlier that same morning. The remains of a blueberry muffin lay in crumbles on a small plate before him. He picked at them idly and yawned into his sleeve. Briefly wondering how many hours Kaiba had been up before phoning him, he slid off the stool and stretched his arms over his head. There came the smooth rumble of an engine outside. Yuugi blinked his eyes and looked at the black limousine that was rolling up to the shop. A man in a suit got out of the driver's seat and walked around the vehicle to open the door closest to the shop. And there was a man he knew well: Seto Kaiba swung his legs out of the vehicle and sauntered up to the door. His younger brother trailed behind him in his shadow. The bell jingled as they entered the shop.

Seto's eyes landed on Yuugi. But Mokuba stopped the conversation before it had even begun, rushing forward. "Hey, Yuugi!" He cried out, swinging his arms around him. Yuugi's mouth twitched into a smile. "It's so good to see you. I'm sorry we don't visit often. Seto is designing a new duel disk, and we're quite busy with a new theme park that's opening up." Mokuba grinned, pulling out of the hug.

"I understand, Mokuba," Yuugi assured him, "I've been busy too, with my studies at school. Actually," he hesitated, returning his gaze to Seto, "I was wondering if you could give me a lift, and we could talk on the way. Is that all right with you?"

Seto shrugged. "It's acceptable. Come along, then." He pivoted on one foot and was out the door much quicker than he had come in. Mokuba waited for Yuugi as he reached behind the counter to gather his bag. They exited the shop and the driver waited with the limo door open for them as they climbed in. It was shut quietly. "To the college." Seto ordered before closing the divider, and the driver started the engine. They pulled away from the Game Shop.

"So," Yuugi shifted in his seat, his glance drifting between the two brothers sitting across from him. He had no idea what to expect (the Kaiba family had never ceased to surprise him, they were people he knew to be completely unpredictable) and so he wasn't sure whether this visit should make him wary or not. "What did you come to see me for, Kaiba?" He asked, addressing the eldest. Mokuba was, as far as he could tell, the only one who addressed his brother by his first name. And Yuugi wasn't about to break that boundary yet, despite all that they'd been through.

Seto pulled a briefcase onto his lap, unlatching it. Removing a laptop from within, he turned the machine on and answered easily, "Earlier this morning my computer detected a hacker in one of my corporation's labs in the downtown area. This intruder had managed to get past all of the guards surrounding the perimeter, and then had bypassed the software that would have prevented him from going through the front door and many subsequent doors." He tapped at the keyboard, bringing up the recorded video files. "After that, he gained entry into a room that housed a number of my virtual pods, and then somehow escaped with the blueprints for the virtual pods, as well as the access codes necessary to link a system to the virtual world." Yuugi listened without moving, taking in everything that he had said. Mokuba had also remained mostly silent, with only one involuntary gasp at his brother's words.

Yuugi adjusted his grip on his bag, and thought about how to phrase his question. "Well," he said finally, "I'm sorry to hear that all this has happened, Kaiba, but I don't think I would be able help you very much. So why—"

"I'm getting to that," Seto interjected smoothly. He turned his laptop to face Yuugi, which was currently showing a black screen. After Seto touched another button, though, Yuugi could see that he was looking at camera footage. There was the tell-tale sign at the bottom of the screen: white characters representing the camera's exact location on the grounds, and the time flashing slowly beside it. Mokuba turned himself in his seat to get a better view of the screen. It was clear that he had no idea what he was going to see, either. And as the video started playing, it wasn't much. They could see that this was a camera watching the main entrance, as the screen showed the outside of the building. There were wide concrete steps leading up to the bottom corner of the screen, where they could see the edge of double glass doors. These were obviously locked by a computer, as there was a little black box which needed a pin code and a card set beside the doors, in the brick of the wall. It was night in the footage, and not much was visible beyond the singular lamppost standing on the far side of the bottom of the steps. There were three uniformed men standing in a group beneath this post, chattering idly away, although the camera was too far away to hear their voices. They carried guns in the holsters at their belts, as well as handheld radio devices to contact each other if needed. So these were the guards Seto had mentioned. Yuugi wondered how on earth this intruder was supposed to take out three armed men.

There came the approach of a cloaked figure on the screen. He approached the stairs with confident steps, but then paused as the guards stopped speaking and one came towards him. There was a minute of conversation, before the guard appeared annoyed and gestured for him to leave the area. The figure did not seem inclined to do so, and with one hand drew forth something from a hidden pocket. Yuugi shared a confused look with Mokuba. The image was dark, and he could not make out what the figure held in its hand. Something else was revealed from the cloak (again, it was too dark to see), and suddenly both objects were glowing in unearthly light. And then the light died down.

All of a sudden, they knew exactly what he held in one hand, though the view was blocked by the individual's fingers. There stood on the ground before the guard a being resembling a great, green ogre, drool dripping from its jaws. "Terra the Terrible," Yuugi whispered, his breath caught by the very real image on the screen. Mokuba was equally as shocked. The fiend monster wasted no time in knocking the guards unconscious. The first was caught in its giant gnarled hands, and with barely a yelp he was flung to the ground, head hitting the hard cement and silencing his voice. The other two guards were quicker to respond, drawing their guns to raise them at the monster. Terra lumbered forward with a growl. They gave a shout and began firing: shots hit the ogre, but it did not stop. It reached the guards and with one fluid motion cracked their heads together. They slumped to the ground, guns dropping uselessly from their hands.

Seto stopped the footage, causing them to both look up from the screen. "I will skip forward to another camera's view in order to show you a better view of the man you just saw," he told Yuugi. Yuugi nodded, speechless. Seto turned the computer around on his lap and tapped the keyboard for a while before he turned it around again. Yuugi and Mokuba leaned in, peering closely at the screen. This camera showed a view of a hallway. The corridor stretched off beyond the screen to the left, but to the right was a metal door, locked. There was the intruder again, now a man, as they could see. The image was frozen on the screen: the man was no longer wearing the hood that had covered his head. They could see that he was an older man, perhaps early forties. His hair was short and dark, and his eyes were deep-set. There were circles under those eyes, as though he had not slept in quite a while. The man had a grim expression on his face.

"Now," said Seto in a formal manner, "I'm going to slow down the viewing for a little while. But I want you to watch what he draws from his cloak." The footage started up, and Yuugi and Mokuba watched hesitantly as the man seemed to repeat the same thing as before. He drew from his cloak the duel monster card that was Terra the Terrible, and then he reached with his other hand into another pocket. Yuugi did not know what to expect. What was Kaiba so adamant about him needing to see? Surely there was nothing more to shock him.

He was horribly wrong. The man revealed the Millennium Rod from beneath his cloak. Yuugi found he could not breathe. Despairingly, he looked at Kaiba. His expression revealed nothing. Yuugi's glance was drawn back onto the screen, so that he now knew how the fiend monster had been unleashed from its domain within the card. The Rod glowed golden, and then so did the card. The duel monster removed itself from its confines, and then the Rod went silent —the light dimmed and winked out. He and Mokuba proceeded to watch the fiend tear a hole through the thick metal door and then yank out the electrical circuit. When the recording ended, Seto enclosed the computer in his briefcase once more and waited patiently for Yuugi's response. "This was the only door that he did not hack into."

"This is all so overwhelming," Yuugi said at length. He stared blankly at Seto. "Somehow, someone has taken the Millennium Rod from Egypt...I thought that it had been buried under all that sand and rock when the Chamber of the Millennium Stone collapsed. I remember...the rock beneath the Millennium Stone split apart and it fell down into the hole, bringing all the Items down with it. We barely managed to get out, ourselves," his sentences came out haltingly, as Yuugi tried to string together his muddled thoughts.

Seto nodded. "That's what I thought as well. But we can skip the 'somehow' for now, Yuugi, and just focus on the fact that, regardless of how it got here, it is. And now, this man is using the Rod to steal from my company. _That_ is the part I'm concerned about." His tone betrayed none of the anger Yuugi was sure was just beneath the surface. He had faced multiple takeover attempts, and Yuugi knew this attack on his lab was striking more than just a few nerves. He felt a twinge of guilt that the stolen technology was not the first thing to bother him, yet he knew that the Rod was much more dangerous in the hands of an enemy. And that was what they were facing, of course. A new enemy.

Seto and Yuugi eyed each other across the space of their seats. Each saw the challenge in the other's eyes, the strong determination. There was no uncertainty in the violet or blue orbs, only a willingness to do whatever it took to win. Perhaps this was not so unlike a game, after all. The rules were not so plainly stated, as of yet, but there was a definite plot and sides had been chosen. Round one had begun. It was time for their team to answer the opening move. "The Millennium Items do not answer to just anyone, Kaiba. This is a person who has learned to tap into the Rod's powers, and in doing so, call upon the spirit of a card so that it can materialize into our world." Yuugi rationalized.

Running a hand over the front of his suit to even out the imaginary wrinkles, Seto responded. "Not only that, Yuugi, but thinking over his motions makes me think that he has done this before. Furthermore, when the monster came out of the card, even though my security shot at it, it did not seem affected."

Yuugi was nodding. "Do you remember when Dartz summoned all of those duel monsters into the city? How we got rid of them by using our own monsters? I think a monster can therefore only be destroyed by another monster."

The elder brother scowled in response, while the younger spoke his thoughts out loud. "But the monsters can attack us just fine," Mokuba protested.

"Exactly," Seto said sternly, "which means anyone without a duel disk is at his mercy. And finally, our monsters are unable to have any affect on the real world —we, unlike him, don't have the ability to give our monsters a real presence in this world. So they will only be able to affect other monsters, real or otherwise."

There was silence as the three considered all of this. "Do you think..." Yuugi began, but one look at Seto caused him to stop. There was a certain sense of uneasiness at his thought, and maybe, just maybe, if he didn't say it aloud then the danger wouldn't be there to plague them. Seto had an expression that he had come to recognize on his face. He was planning something, going over all of his options, making a note of all possible outcomes. This was not a man who made mistakes readily, who threw himself into a situation without planning on coming out the better for it. He had decided something, then, before phoning him. Yuugi sat back in his seat and relaxed. "Whatever you want me to do, Kaiba," he offered. Kaiba would sort it out.

The white suit contrasted well with Seto's autumn hair, accentuating his high cheekbones, the pale skin. He looked attractive, but few could see past the cocky smirk and the sharp tongue. Seto used those attributes now, flashing his pearly white teeth. "I don't know what this guy's after or what he wants with my virtual technology, Yuugi, but you can bet I'll find out. You don't need to do anything. I just want you to be aware of what's happening. You'll tell the rest of that geek squad of yours, I assume." The humour was back in the conversation, and Yuugi decided to keep it there, not bothering to give an answering retort. The confidence in Kaiba's voice was reassuring. "And Yuugi..." Seto slid one hand into an inner pocket of his jacket, then pulled it out again. "You keep your deck close at hand, am I right?" His duel monster cards were in his grip. The brown faces with the swirling vortexes peeked out from beneath his fingers.

Yuugi heard the underlying meaning in his voice. _Be careful._ Trust Kaiba to say it like that. He moved the bottom of his black coat up, revealing the card holder on one of his belts. "Of course, Kaiba," Seto nodded in satisfaction, returning his deck to its pocket. Something occurred to Yuugi. "Could you possibly try to contact the Ishtar family, or find out how so that I can get a hold of them? Since the Chamber of the Millennium Stone was in the land that the tomb keepers have been taking care of for generations, they might know something about how the Rod came to be removed from it. Who knows, maybe we can get a lead on the man who stole your technology." They had parted with the Ishtar family long ago, not expecting to see them again. So they had forged no link to contact each other. However; if anyone could find out how to speak with them, it would be Kaiba. He had contacts all over the world from the expansion of his company, and he would know exactly where to start searching to find the information they needed.

"Yes, I'll do that. And as soon as I have an update, I'll call you with the information." Seto agreed.

They pulled up in the bus loop beside the college's parking lots. The limousine rolled to a stop, and Yuugi moved to open the door, but he halted when he caught the startled looks the brothers gave him. There was a moment of waiting, and then the driver opened the door. Yuugi couldn't help but be glad Joey wasn't there. He would absolutely be making some comment about rich snobs right about then. As it was, he had trouble holding back the smile that threatened his features. Kaiba would take it as an insult. He raised himself out of his seat and exited the vehicle. "Thank you for the ride," he told the driver and Kaiba jointly. He focused on Kaiba's face, partially hidden by the brown locks framing it. "And thanks for letting me know," Yuugi added.

The young businessman would not let him leave with the parting remark. "Your connection to the Millennium Items will undoubtedly make you a target for whatever this man has in mind," Seto advised him.

Yuugi turned away from the limousine. "Same to you." He motioned to the driver, who tipped his head, and lightly closed the door. Yuugi walked away.

Grinding his teeth together slightly at the insinuation, Kaiba stared at the closed door. He certainly could not be referring to that ancient Egyptian priest that he was supposedly the reincarnation of. The Shadow Realm he could accept. The Millennium Items and the powers they contained? Very well, he could accept that too. The spirits that had once dwelled within two of those items...that was something that he had also gradually come to terms with. It was the idea that fate, that destiny had caused him to be related to all of the crazy situations that he had found himself in over the years that he could not accept. He could not allow the thought that he was not in control of his actions, that destiny had caused him to be the rival of Yuugi. That destiny had caused him to wield the Blue-Eyes White Dragon. That destiny had anything to do with his life disgusted him. Never mind the visions he'd had. Never mind the Memory World he'd experienced.

Mokuba sat a little distance away from his brother on the same seat. He had been mostly silent throughout the entire exchange, taking in everything that had been said, knowing that he should keep quiet. He thought his brother wouldn't have liked it. Seto was in one of those moods, he could tell, the same one from earlier that morning. It was a mood he'd been in when he'd decided to host the Battle City Tournament. He could see the single-minded determination on his brother's face. Something was stopping him from being the best. Something was in his way. He'd do whatever it took to bring that person down. Mokuba straightened his back. And he would support Seto, no matter what course he chose to take. Even if it was a dangerous course. Because that had never stopped his big brother before, so of course it wouldn't now.

"Seto," he spoke up, his serious tone discordant from the hopeful look on his face. Seto turned, distracted from his thoughts. "Is there anything I can do for you, to help?"

Blinking, Seto's fingers came up to his cheek, and he brushed a stray strand of hair away from his face. "Hmm. Yes. Yes, there is. I want to send you to the lab to check out the scene. I want you to see the damage this man has caused first-hand, and see if you can't find out anything more about him. I have the technicians combing the building, of course, checking for clues, but I don't trust that they won't miss anything. I want a full report on everything you see when you're finished."

Mokuba was only too happy to have a place in his brother's plans. "Sure, I'll get right on it." With that, Seto reached over his shoulder and touched the button that rolled down the divider.

"Take us to the downtown laboratory complex." He demanded. The driver nodded and they pulled away from the college. Seto rolled the divider up again for privacy. Then, he reached below the seat for a bagged container that Mokuba had seen him bring into the vehicle earlier. His face scrunched into a sour look as he realized it to be a plastic food container. Seto tugged off the lid, revealing the contents. Two sets of porcelain chopsticks rested on silk napkins on top of an array of food. Seto offered a set to Mokuba, who took them awkwardly.

"It's going to be one of those days, isn't it," Mokuba muttered with a sigh.

His brother started, then let out a half-laugh. "I do believe my cooking isn't that terrible," he informed him. Then he glanced down at his attempt at breakfast and found himself grimacing in admittance. "Very well," he sighed as well, "it is not completely terrible, should I say." He set the container down between them, and placed the napkins beside it. He waited for Mokuba to take a bite before changing the subject. "I'll head back to the mansion while you're at the lab. I have some research to do so as to find out a phone number I can reach the Ishtar family at." Mokuba nodded at him.

"Why didn't you tell Yuugi that that guy had stolen the technology for Noah's virtual world? What I mean is, he probably thought that it was just your virtual game world, the one which you designed back when Pegasus was still having his Duelist Kingdom tournament." Mokuba questioned around a mouthful of food.

Seto started again. Of course his brother would catch something like that, though he was still surprised that he had recognized the building from the footage. "It is unimportant information," he said only. What was running through his mind was completely different. By telling him that information, Yuugi would ask if this was the building where Noah's body was held. And then Yuugi would think of him entirely in another way, thinking that he was after this intruder for fear of Noah's safety. For fear that by gaining access to the virtual world that Noah's mind had once resided in, this man would now have an opportunity to harm whatever vestiges of Noah that still resided there. Which was ridiculous. Yuugi did not need to think of him like that. He only needed to know that he was trying to protect his company, nothing more. After all, that's all it was, wasn't it?

He had yet to take a bite of his breakfast. One other thing had come to his mind. What was it that Yuugi had started to ask him, but had then stopped, mid-sentence? _"Do you think..."_ Did he think...what? It came to him suddenly.

He tried to breathe, but found the air wouldn't come. _Do you think that the other Millennium Items have been removed from the Chamber as well?_

There was an image in his mind, an strong picture of an upturned golden pyramid, the Eye of Wdjat standing out in the middle of its surface. It was a symbol of power and protection, a ward to evil that would have used the Item for its own. He tried to block out, but couldn't, the long brown cord that was threaded through the golden loop at the top of the pyramid. It rested around the neck of someone. He could make that person out, now. The spiked maroon hair, the blond highlights. The violet eyes so unlike Yuugi's own. The skin was much darker, fitting the clothing that he wore. Gold jewellery around his arms, his wrists, his legs; rings on two fingers, on both hands; a golden circlet about his forehead, again carrying the symbol of the Eye; a white linen tunic; a long blue cloak wrapped about his shoulders. The Other Yuugi was just as imposing in his mind as in person.

He shook his head impatiently. He had no time to dwell on such thoughts. That person was long gone, and would never return. Even should that particular Millennium Item return, that person still would not. Still, he thought absently, it would have been good to see his old rival once again. In spite of all his efforts, he still had yet to beat him in a duel.

He wondered faintly if the Egyptian gods had granted him a good afterlife.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

It wasn't a luxury van, nor was it exactly clean (sand dusted the floor and the seats), but it was large and roomy. It was painted an army green, and stood out plainly against the white terrain. The occupants consisted of four people: there was the driver, and then there was the three members of the Ishtar family. Ishizu sat in the front seat beside the driver. She looked as elegant as ever, wearing a creamy dress that fitted her curves. She was expressionless, though her fingers plucked involuntarily at her dress in her lap. Her brother, Marik, sat just behind her seat. He was stretched out, hands linked loosely behind his head and feet crossed under the seat in front of him. He appeared mostly relaxed, his eyes watching the monotonous scenery pass by outside the window. Marik was his sister's opposite: bold and unrefined in both his attire and attitude. The man who sat beside Marik was the third member of the Ishtar family, and was once mistaken as their bodyguard. His name was Odion, and he sat unmoving in his seat beside Marik. He was mostly bald, save for a length of black hair tied in a ponytail at the back of his head. Hieroglyphs covered one side of his face. He was adorned all in black, though a dark blue cloak that dropped to below his knees covered most of this from view. The van was carrying these four people towards an excavation site, as they could see in the distance. It was slowly becoming more defined as they drew closer. Excavators and other large machines dug out dirt and rock and sent it in dump trucks to an assigned dumping ground. Tents were set up above large groups of people, providing some protection from the sun's rays as they dug in the heat. Jeeps and other vehicles littered the flat land before the dig site: a sheer rock cliff.

They pulled up alongside one of the jeeps, parked partially under the cover of a looming boulder in front of them, which shed its shadow some distance. The driver turned to Ishizu. "Shall I wait here?" The tone was hopeful, suggesting that the heat was much greater outside the cool of the van than they had thought. Ishizu gave a brief nod, and the three of them climbed out.

Ishizu looked up at the great expanse of broken rock and deep holes, created by the team that even now still worked there. There was a din of workers' voices, engines of machines, and the sound of metal striking stone to be heard over, but Ishizu made an effort. "The scenery is very different from when we last saw it," she said to the two men over her shoulder. Marik came to stand a little in front of her, and placed his hand on his forehead to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun. He gave a long look at the sight before them. Odion stood at her left, his hand coming up to gently touch her shoulder. She met his warm eyes and unspoken concern with her own. "I have a bad feeling about this," she sighed. Marik grit his teeth and Odion squeezed her arm. They were in silent agreement.

A man was coming down the slight slope in front of the boulder, waving his arms. They recognized him as Akhom, a man who had helped Dr. Yoshida organize the dig team. They walked to meet him half-way. "Ah," Akhom spread his arms in greeting and reached out to shake Marik's hand when they had approached. He was smiling, and his eyes sparked with excitement. "Thank-you for taking the time to come here! It is much appreciated."

Marik shrugged. "Of course. We're just as excited as you are to hear that you've made a discovery. But tell me: where is Dr. Yoshida? I had assumed he would meet up with us today, not you."

Akhom's smile faltered for a split second. "Dr. Yoshida left last week for Japan. He's going to be away for a few weeks to see his family. Well, he certainly deserves it. I'm told he had been working on another dig project before this one for a few months with no break. He needs the holiday," he clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "and so I've been assigned the privilege of being the temporary head of the team while he's away."

Marik was not pleased, but he kept his tone level, and so Akhom did not seem to notice. "That's fine. Now, will you lead us to the site of this discovery?" Akhom was only too happy to oblige. They followed him up the slope, a few paces behind his. Marik exchanged looks with Odion and Ishizu. Dr. Yoshida needs a holiday? Marik thought in confusion. Even if this is the biggest and greatest expedition of his career? The bad feeling they shared only worsened, now sharpened with an edge of worry. Something was not right.

They were led up to a place where the activity was the highest. It was at the top of a steep incline, though their ascent was made easier by the groove in the middle, presumably made by the passing of one of the excavators. There was a hollowed space in the cliff wall on one side of the space. All across the ground was a series of wide gaps in the earth, and judging by the wooden braces that lined the sides of each gap, they used to be much thinner. Ladders and pulleys had been posted all around each gap, and workers climbed in and out as they worked, retrieving equipment from above before heading back down. Dirt and rock was being hauled out via the pulleys. Tents were erected above the space of some of the gaps, providing some shade to the workers below. Akhom was speaking as they walked. "We've made a lot of progress on this space since we first got here. It's where we've been focussing most of our efforts, so it's now a much more efficient working environment." Akhom explained. He received no answer from the three behind him.

They passed a dump truck with its engine running, apparently ready to move off with another load of dirt. Akhom was wiping the sweat off of his forehead with a ragged handkerchief. He stopped at the edge of a hole closest to the hollowed space in the cliff. Looking down showed that this hole was the deepest that the team had dug down into, as there were slopes within the hole leading to the various levels that they were working at digging out. Old, ruined pillars were slowly being unearthed from the rock, but they stood around the edges of the hole, still half-buried. Standing at the edge of the hole and looking hard at the pillars, at the hieroglyphs etched in their surface, the Ishtars realized with horror what had been uncovered.

The Chamber of the Millennium Stone was in better condition than they would have thought since its collapse years ago. Many of the unearthed pillars seemed mostly intact, and looking closer, the chunks of stone that they had mistaken for boulders could only be pieces of what was once the ceiling. Marik looked at the length of the pillars that they could see, and tried to remember how tall they'd been standing erect in the Chamber all those years ago. If he was remembering correctly, then they had uncovered nearly the full length of the pillars. Then the floor of the Chamber was not too far down from the bottom of the hole. Akhom gestured for them to follow him down a wooden ramp into the first level in the hole. They did.

Odion's voice was hushed enough so that only Marik and Ishizu could hear him. "But the entrance to the Chamber is on the other side of this cliff. How is it that they're able to dig into it from here?" His words were laced heavily with his apprehension. Their family had spent generation upon generation protecting the world from the dark powers of the Millennium Items, and the Items from the dark intent of the world. Now this rediscovery of something that they had thought had been lost was threatening their efforts.

Marik's voice was brittle with wariness and distrust. "We failed to understand how deep those stairs down into the Chamber cut into this cliff," he explained angrily, "and it was a wide chamber, it must expand far enough this way that they're able to dig down through its ceiling."

"The fact that they did at all, though," said Ishizu ominously, "was the work of fate. The ceiling, after all, was solid stone, but when it collapsed all those years ago the stone broke apart. This let dirt, sand, and rocks filter down in-between the cracks. So the cliff above was weakened, and thus they were able to penetrate the Chamber using the holes left behind from the dirt above the ceiling. I believe this was meant to happen. Because; the Chamber did not really need to collapse at all at that time, did it? And now it reveals itself once more."

Marik and Odion gazed at her in disbelief. Marik waved his hands at the destruction all around them. "Are you saying, then, that this entire excavation has been preordained? That, for some reason that has yet to be revealed, this was necessary?"

Ishizu could only look at him with sad eyes. "I cannot say for sure, my brother. I can only tell you what I feel in my heart."

Odion broke in uneasily, "Do they realize what it is that they've uncovered?" He murmured.

Akhom had turned around and had waited for them to reach him, as they were a little distance behind. Now they waited for him to speak. "As you can see, we're busy trying to dig out all of these pillars from the rock. These hieroglyphs..." He paused and reached out one hand to the surface of a pillar beside him, tracing with his fingers the ancient text. "From what we can read so far, they indicate, we believe, that this space was once the Chamber of the Millennium Stone."

He was looking at Marik, but it was Ishizu who confirmed his words. "You are correct in believing that. Although; the entrance to this great room exists on the other side of this cliff, yet the Chamber lies just beneath us."

Akhom took his hand away from the pillar. He nodded. "I know that this had already been discovered by some generations of your family before you. It was a well-known discovery. The scientific community had numerous articles printed about it for quite a while. But, like the Nameless Pharaoh's tomb, your family has not allowed anyone near this Chamber, so..."

Ishizu understood. "I assure you that this does not break our contract. Your team did not cross the boundaries we had set for you. You may continue to dig up the remains of the Chamber."

Relieved, Akhom reached up to mop more sweat away from his face with the handkerchief. "Thank-you. It would be our honour to restore the Chamber to its previous state. But, if I may ask, how did it come to be ruined like this? I cannot imagine what would have caused it to collapse..."

Crossing the space between them, Marik took Akhom's elbow in a vaguely friendly gesture. "Who knows what could have disturbed the earth?" He answered evasively. Akhom narrowed his eyes a little. "But do tell me, what else aside from the pillars have you uncovered? Have you encountered the outer structure of the walls, yet? Can you give me an accurate description of what you've found that's intact?"

The man decided it was not worth the effort to find out the truth, and in response to Marik's questions, called a worker over from where he was working hunched over a great piece of stone. The worker appeared to know precisely what it was he'd be asked, and launched into an explanation before Akhom had even gotten a sentence out. "We've almost removed it from the stone," he rushed out, rolling his shoulders back to loosen the muscles as he spoke, "the only problem is how far it's been wedged between the stone and the dirt and rock. But we've dug out most of the dirt, so it won't be too long now before it's out," He guaranteed.

The worker turned and they all followed him back to the large hunk of stone a group of workers was currently digging out. It was obviously a piece of the ceiling: the surface was too smooth to be anything else. The group was working on widening the gouge between the ceiling piece and the outer wall of the hole, using their tools to slowly chink away at the hard dirt and rock. A number of interlocking wooden bars was being used to keep the dirt of the wall at bay while they worked, stopping the dirt from falling down to fill in the hole that they had created. The Ishtars shifted on their feet as they watched the workers, none admitting to the anxiety each felt.

Finally, one of the workers gave a cry, and the rest focussed their energy upon a certain spot, digging out more dirt with their tools. One of the men reached down into the hole, feeling around blindly for a moment, before withdrawing his hand with a triumphant expression. There was a minute of congratulations all around, as each member of the team patted the other on the back, and shook each other's hands. That one worker came down off the top of the stone, and walked towards Akhom. He held his hand out and offered what was laying in his palm.

The Shadow Realm's darkness seemed to loom in each of the Ishtars' minds. Its great powers leaked from the Item laying so innocently in the man's hand, tempting weak minds to try and covet the Item for their own. Ishizu thought she had never seen the Millennium Necklace look so beautiful in her life. The golden surface seemed untouched by time, perfectly unblemished. It sparkled joyously in the sun's rays.

"Of course this belongs to you," Akhom said, his hand closing around the Item. He turned and reluctantly held it out to Ishizu. "As promised, every artefact that we discover we will hand over to you," Akhom paused a moment, reconsidering his words, "well, this has, like the Chamber, already been discovered by your family. So I suppose the term would be rediscover. I should think we'll still get an article or two in the newspaper for this, though." He flashed her a smile.

Ishizu took her eyes off of the Necklace and turned her head to her brother. She met his lavender eyes and saw that he, too, understood the implications of this. "We need to get a hold of Yuugi," she said simply.

"Yes," he agreed.

His hand was still held out for her to take the Necklace, though his expression seemed oddly possessive. Clearly the Item was already working its magic on him. Hesitantly, uncertainly, she reached her own hand towards it, as if it might disappear before her eyes at any moment. Her fingers closed around its cold surface. And as they did, shadows opened up in her mind, and the familiar darkness enveloped her consciousness.

She was indoors. The room was large, and the ceiling stretched high overhead. Supporting beams were nestled among lights up above. It was a warehouse, then. There were stacks of crates in the corner of the warehouse. People milled about the room, moving boxes of supplies here and there. They were setting something up in the middle of the room: unfinished metal structures lay on the ground, electrical circuits and wiring spilling out behind them. There was a welder getting to work on creating something else to add to the structure in another corner of the room. Someone else was cutting metal sheets on another piece of equipment. Amid all of this activity, there was someone who stood in the in middle of the room and did nothing. Occasionally, people would come up to this man with a box, and he would then proceed to direct them to somewhere else. Ishizu concentrated on his image, and drew closer. She reeled in shock. Dr. Yoshida blinked sore eyes and ran a hand through his dishevelled hair. He appeared to not have slept in a long while. Another man drew forward with a box, about to ask where to place it. But Ishizu could see that the man's eyes were blank. He was completely unconscious. Dr. Yoshida pulled something from his pocket. And then the Millennium Rod was glowing in front of the man's face, the light reflecting and refracting in his eyes. Without speaking, he walked away. Ishizu could feel the vision slipping. The shadows were leaving her mind, and the images were becoming blurry. Yet as the world inside the warehouse faded away, she could still see in her mind the blankness in the man's eyes as the Rod completely took control.

She came back into herself with a gasp, feeling the world with the intensity that came right after a vision. The sudden heat, the sharp light of day, the rough rock beneath her feet, all made her remember where she was. She blinked both eyes and found Akhom staring at her strangely, a perplexed expression on his face. She jerked her hand away from his, the Necklace clutched between her fingers. Marik and Odion knew instantly what had transpired, and moved to rectify the situation. Odion stepped in front of her, blocking Akhom's view. Marik changed the subject. "Thank-you for letting us see most of the dig site. It's good to see how much progress your team has made. Indeed, it's far more than I think any of us would have believed for having been here for a little over a week."

"I agree wholeheartedly," Akhom responded, his good mood returning swiftly. He led them back out of the hole, and down the slope, back to the flatland where their van was parked. "I bid you a safe journey back," he called as they walked to their van, and waved goodbye.

The spoke quietly to each other in the space before the boulder.

"We must find a way to contact Yuugi and his friends," Ishizu repeated to them, urgently.

Odion grasped her hands, and tried to relax her hold on the Millennium Necklace. "What did you see?" He asked, although; he was not sure he wanted to know.

"Dr. Yoshida did not return to Japan for a family reunion," she told them. Ishizu looked at her brother cautiously, not sure if she wanted him to hear her next words. "He has the Millennium Rod."

That was all they needed to hear. All three knew the Items could drive some people mad with the desire to obtain their power. Marik spun on the spot, intending on returning up the slope. "I'll confront Akhom about this," he snapped furiously, "I can't believe we weren't informed that they had discovered the Rod!" But Ishizu stopped him, grabbing his hand with one of her own. Marik rounded on her. "Why didn't _you_ confront him?" He demanded.

"I think he is innocent in the matter," she said simply. Marik's angry aura died down somewhat, and his face softened. She continued, "I believe he has no idea that we were not informed. Furthermore, it would make no difference if we asked him, now wouldn't it? The Rod is already out of our hands...the wheel of fate has already been spun. We need to move forward now, Marik, instead of considering the past. We must now figure out how to stop Dr. Yoshida's plans from coming to fruition." She dropped his hand, now certain that he would not leave.

"Plans?" Odion cut in.

She tilted her head slightly in admission. Her glance dropped to the Necklace in her palm. "I saw a vision of the future. Dr. Yoshida is building something...or rather, several of whatever it was. They were incomplete when I saw them, however, and so I am not sure what I saw. But...he was using the Rod to force people to build these objects. I can only guess at the evil intent behind his actions."

"Is this, along with the re-emergence of the Chamber, the ploy of fate as well? How is it that two Items which should have been buried far beneath the earth, far beneath the Chamber itself, have been found so easily?" Odion questioned in deep confusion.

Ishizu looked up at him and tried to explain her line of thought. "Think about it. They are endowed with the power of the Shadow Realm itself, remember. Perhaps it is not so unlikely that they tumbled down that hole...and then were brought towards the surface by some means such as an unsuspecting animal, lurking beneath the sand. It would not be too difficult for a mindless creature to be lured by the darkness oozing from an Item into carrying a bit of shiny metal to the surface. I do not think it is impossible."

Her brothers both seemed like they were having a hard time accepting this concept. "The Items are powerful, yes, but I do not think that a creature without intelligence would be able to sense the Shadows, sister," Marik argued.

He received a shake of the head in response. "Can you come up with a better explanation for their return to this world? I would gladly hear it." She was not annoyed with him, but indeed sounded as though she hoped he had thought of something she had not. Marik and Odion could only shrug helplessly, and Ishizu returned her gaze back to the Item in her palm.

Marik and Odion followed her gaze to the Necklace in her hand. The small object seemed so harmless, yet in the wrong hands, could be most deadly. "We need to return to the city, and like you said, contact Yuugi and his friends to tell them of what's going on." Marik took the lead, and strode back to the van. They followed behind him.

The driver was glad to be returning, and started the van without a word. Soon they were off back the way they had come, driving up out of the valley and past the excavation camp. The landscape was soon much duller: miles and miles of dunes stretched out in every direction, as far as the eyes could see. They continued on in silence for a few hours, each person left to their own bleak thoughts. No: the driver hummed old tunes under his breath, and tapped his fingers on the wheel as he drove. At the very least, one person was happy.

After some time, they came back to their modest house amidst the more residential section of Luxor. The driver waved as he drove away, and they entered their home with some degree of relaxation. Marik kicked off his shoes without thinking, while Odion and Ishizu both bent to place theirs on a low shelf that rested against the wall beside the door. They were in a hallway, and just in front of them was a staircase. To their right was the living room. It was this room that they entered now, settling down on the couches with a sigh. They did not get much reprieve, however, as suddenly the phone on the coffee table was ringing. Ishizu and Odion looked at Marik, his arms and legs splayed out over the couch opposite them, his head drooping over the side. He gave the phone a glare. "What _now_." He muttered.

Abruptly, he removed the phone from its holder. The ringing was silenced. Marik listened to the voice on the other side of the line. "Yes. Did he? How long ago?" A pause. They listened to each other breathing while he waited for a reply. "Do you have a number I can reach him at?" There was another pause. Marik waved his fingers at Odion, who got the general idea and quickly went to find a pen and paper. He returned and placed them on the table in front of Marik, who immediately began writing something down. "Yes. All right. Thank-you." He hung up.

Odion was the first to ask the question. "Who was that?"

Marik grinned. "You won't believe our luck," he answered, snapping the lid of the pen back on, "that was the secretary at the museum that you direct, Ishizu. She was just calling to tell us that a certain Seto Kaiba had phoned earlier, asking for us. She told him we'd get back to him today."

Ishizu and Odion appeared momentarily surprised, before looking pleased. "That is good news," Odion agreed, "now we don't have to go looking for a way to contact them." Then his expression changed into one of confusion. He glanced between Ishizu and Marik. "But I do not understand. I was under the impression that Kaiba would never phone for a personal matter. What business do you think he wants with us? Or do you think something bad happened?"

They all looked at each other, suddenly worried. Marik sat forward decisively. "I'll phone him back." He declared, and began dialling the number he had written down.

Ishizu was prepared to sit and wait for the information right there, but Odion gestured for her to come out of the room. She followed him back to the hallway. "Wait here, I'll be right back," He said, and climbed up the stairs. She waited. A little while later, he returned from upstairs, and in his hand he held a golden chain. Ishizu looked at him curiously. "For your Necklace," he offered awkwardly, holding out the delicate chain. It was the same length as her old one, she noticed, and was the same colour as the Necklace. Ishizu gave him a small smile and held out the Necklace still resting in her hand. He took it carefully and threaded the chain through the loops on either side of the Necklace. "Ishizu. I know this looks like another difficult path, but we've walked down more difficult ones, and have come out all right. Even though it looks dark and dangerous right now, as we go down it, I'm sure we'll find something worth hanging on to. Because...it's tough knowing that there's something out there that we're not sure we can face. But it's even tougher to stop going and never know if you would even run into that something at all, isn't it?" Odion stared calmly at her, and held out the Necklace.

Somehow, he had seen through the calm mask to the deeper turmoil within. He had seen her concern over the lost Rod, her fear of its power. He had known, even before Marik, that though she was willing to face this new challenge, she wasn't ready for it. In her heart, she would always remember the Marik that had existed when he had held the Millennium Rod: the dark Marik, the one that could destroy with no sadness or remorse. And here was a man using the Rod for evil purposes once again. Her throat seized up at the thought that innocent people were getting hurt. She looked at the offered Necklace with her sea-coloured eyes, and thought of the consequences of taking it. Of taking responsibility for a Millennium Item. If she hung it around her neck, she would assume all of the risks involved. She would agree to its powers, certainly, but also its downfalls. For if she surely claimed it once again as her own, the man might make her a target in his plans. Those who possessed one Item were often drawn to possess the others, after all. And as she looked at the Necklace in her adopted brother's hands, in his kind hands, she found herself looking into his big, kind eyes as well. She made up her mind. If there were people who used the Items for evil, then there were also those who used them for good. And she had a part to play in fate's hand, she was sure. Her destiny lay with the Necklace. She took it from his hand, and placed it around her neck.

They returned to the living room just in time to see Marik place the phone down. He stood up from the couch. They both looked at him questioningly. Marik took one breath, and then began to explain what Kaiba had said. He told them that Dr. Yoshida had stolen Kaiba's virtual technology. He told them of how he had used the Rod to bring duel monsters to life in order to obtain this technology. "So now we know what you saw in your vision, Ishizu. He was building virtual pods. I told Kaiba who he was, what we know about him and what he's done. I also told him about the Necklace and your vision, too, but he didn't like hearing about that. I don't think he liked the idea that another Item has been removed from the Chamber as well. And then he said something about how he didn't give a damn about fate and destiny." Ishizu could see him in her mind, and could picture him saying that. She couldn't help but smile. Marik went on, "I told him we'd fly to Japan and meet up with everyone. This isn't a matter we can just let them sort out. I think we should be there to help out." He explained.

Odion and Ishizu nodded. But then they were silent as they realized what this meant. They couldn't just leave —there was an excavation to oversee. "Someone needs to stay behind," she thought out loud. Then, "Marik, you'll need to go and see them. I was the one who originally agreed to sign the excavation contract, after all, so I should see the dig through to completion."

Marik agreed readily. "Of course. You'll be safer here in Egypt, anyway, Ishizu. And you'll have Odion here to take care of you," he reasoned. Odion gave a hesitant glance at Ishizu.

"No, Marik," Ishizu argued, "it would be better if Odion went with you." Marik looked confused. She elaborated, "You'll need all the help you can get in Japan. And as you said, it is much safer in Egypt. There will be nothing here to worry about." Those were the reasons she said out loud, but the ones she didn't give were much more important to her. She was worried about the Rod, and it bothered her that she didn't know what Dr. Yoshida was up to or why. The information that they had gotten from Kaiba had only further confused them. What could he want with Kaiba's virtual technology? And why would he abandon his greatest chance at becoming famous within the scientific community in order to obtain it? It wasn't just his career, though —it was his life's dream to discover the priests' tombs, as far as she could tell.

Out of all of these thoughts, though, there was one that persisted far more than the others. It was the heavy feeling of the Shadow Realm on the edge of her mind, the image of the Rod from her vision as its light was refracted in the unconscious man's eyes. She tried to shake the image out of her mind, but found she couldn't.

Marik replied thoughtfully, "Yes, that does make the most sense. All right." Odion nodded his assent.

Remembering all of the problems that the Rod had caused before, Ishizu was relieved that Odion was going with Marik to Japan. He was his rock: his strongest link to sanity, to making good decisions that he could live with. Odion kept Marik grounded. And it was for that that Ishizu was grateful. He had kept the shadows of evil in Marik at bay before, and Ishizu was sure that he would do everything in his power to keep Marik safe. And in turn, Marik would protect his beloved friend and brother, from whatever problems that they might encounter.

"While you're away, I ask only that you remember to call with updates on everything that happens. I can't see details with the Necklace, after all, only the futures that are perfectly clear and determined. And even then," she added in reminder, "the outcome that occurs is not always the one that I see, as you can recall from the duel that I had with Kaiba."

Marik snorted in amusement. "A one-time event. No one else has ever managed to thwart destiny."

"No," she agreed, smiling.

Marik and Odion left the room to pack, leaving Ishizu in the living room alone. One hand reached up to her neck, and she rubbed the smooth surface of the Necklace between her fingers. Against her will, she couldn't help but like the nostalgic feeling of power resting against her skin, even though she knew it was not going to last. Even though it felt so...right...the feeling that the Necklace and its power belonged to her.

She knew that she should not feel so comforted that the Item rested so safely around her neck, and that it was there to protect her from harm. Because all of the Items belonged back in the Chamber; buried deep under the desert sand for all eternity. To never be used for evil ever again.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

The hallways were dimly lit with the work lights that were littered across the floor. There was a cacophony that echoed off the walls, from the workers who were apparently attempting a record for the most lights installed in a day. They were working in a disorderly fashion, with stepladders haphazardly set up all across the width of the hallways. All of the ceiling lights were being taken down and their circuits rewired, and newer and shinier lights were being installed in their place. Toolboxes and odd bits of material were strewn across the floor. The electricians chattered amiably to each other as they worked, moving from one section of the ceiling to the next, reordering their mess on the floor along the way. As it was, the pale light from the lamps on the floor and the white-washed sheen of the walls would have created a nice setting in a horror movie. Mokuba couldn't help but think that if his brother was going to all this trouble to have the place upgraded, then perhaps he might consider painting the walls or changing the linoleum flooring.

The head of the lab led him past another open door, where someone was working at recoding the identification box. "How is it that the intruder managed to hack into the system, anyway?" Mokuba questioned his guide, who turned his head with some amount of surprise, "surely our security is strong enough to repel the average hacker."

The man shrugged a little helplessly. "Our security measures aren't updated that often. Although I'm not sure how he did it, sir, I can only guess that this person was just experienced with computers." Mokuba scowled in response. His brother wouldn't have tolerated this less-than-adequate answer, but he was a little more generous, and so he decided not to press the matter.

They came to a set of doors that lay closed. The intruder had not come through this way, then. Mokuba was not simply there to survey the damage, however; he intended on looking over the entire facility in order to give his brother a complete report. If he saw anything that could be updated, he was going to inform Seto immediately. Backup lighting and new codes were probably not the only thing the complex needed. Mokuba turned to the head of the lab and gave him a curious look. "This is?" The man was already swiping his card in one door and typing in his code. The doors slid open sideways.

"This is the room where Noah's body is kept," he informed Mokuba.

Mokuba took a breath. The room was large, and every wall was lined with workstations and computer terminals. There were several doors in the walls that were closed. In the middle of the room there was a great bulbous tank: wires and tubes spewed out the bottom of it, disappearing into the wall. There was a low drone of fluids being pumped into the tank and then sucked back out. The deep blue water swirled with the movement. Stepping into the room, Mokuba took a glance at the technicians, who were monitoring the vital information scrolling across the computer screens. They briefly looked his way before going back to their work. He eyed the confusing information on some of the screens, the coloured lines dipping and rising in no discernable rhythm.

His guide was giving him a sad look. "His brain still sends out signals, and our computers are able to detect them," he said to Mokuba, tapping one screen with his finger. A rainbow of colours appeared under his fingernail. "It's just that those signals don't seem to be reaching the virtual world. His mind is in —I suppose you could call it— something like a coma. And we're not sure why." Mokuba stared blankly at the screen. Quiet beeps were sounding from it. It seemed odd that a human mind could be reduced to lines and bleeps from a computer.

He passed the numerous computers and walked hesitantly up to the tank. Even after knowing where he was, Mokuba had never actually seen Noah in person. It felt weird, like he was visiting some distant relative he'd never known in a hospital. And he hadn't know him, he supposed, well, not really. Less than a day in a virtual reality world didn't really count, did it?

Noah floated naked in the tank, curled in a ball. His eyes were closed peacefully, like he was just sleeping. His blue hair was nearly the same colour as the water, and it frothed about his face. Standing up, Mokuba thought Noah might even be shorter than him, though he was the same age as Seto. But floating in a tank as he was had caused his body to shut down his growth. Noah looked exactly the same as he had when he'd been placed in the tank in the first place: about ten years old, if Mokuba could remember right. Looking at the confident, determined, and headstrong child in the tank gave Mokuba the strangest feeling. It seemed as though his lungs were clenching tightly in his chest, and his heart was throbbing in his throat. He turned away.

"Show me the rest of the building," he commanded. And the tour continued on.

The other hallways looked much the same as the ones before, only they were lit. There were men working at installing new security cameras instead of lights. The sleek new machines would hopefully give his brother the better picture he thought was needed. As they walked, Mokuba looked around as much as he could, wondering what sort of clues he was looking out for, anyway. If Seto had wanted fingerprints or DNA, he would have called the police. But he hadn't: perhaps asking for those sorts of things would have raised too many questions. And how were they supposed to explain that a man with an ancient Egyptian artefact had broken into the facility? That it was this said artefact that had allowed him entry? It was best to keep it quiet. Mokuba wondered at the people who'd been attacked by the intruder. They had all signed contracts when they had entered under his brother's employ, which meant they weren't allowed to say anything about what occurred at their workplace. This was a different situation, though. Some had been injured. How much money had Seto thrown at them to keep them quiet? He decided not to think about it.

He surveyed all of the other rooms in the building, making little notes in his head for when he got back. Many of the rooms were dedicated to the science that kept Noah alive, and contained researchers and their various expensive equipment. It was after a long while that Mokuba was led to the room where the virtual pods were kept. Here the activity was the greatest: many people were working at the removal of the damaged door, and the replacement of the torn wires in the wall. Another person was setting up a new camera in the ceiling, balancing precariously on the top step of a ladder while someone held it still below. He got many looks from the workers as he walked past, but they all soon returned to what they were doing. They knew who he was, and it would not due to look distracted in front of a Kaiba.

This room was longer than it was wide. Either side was lined with pods. Some were obviously prototypes, their design more bulky. The others were of the latest technology, painted silver with a comfortable leather interior. The glass lids were all closed, the lights on the bottom of the machines dark. At the far end of the room were the controls for the virtual world. Various levers and buttons lined the top of the console. A chair rested behind it. Mokuba walked forward briskly, going first to the console, where he knew the intruder must have obtained the codes and the blueprints that were stored in the computer. He examined the room thoroughly while the head technician waited by the door. He entered the computer system and looked for anything that could identify the man, but found all traces of his access to the system deleted. At last he was stumped.

Mokuba eyed the entryway as he thought. The man had entered through that door, that much was clear. Yet when their security had finally made it to the room, they had not found him there at all. The man had vanished. To leave the room he would have had to leave through that door, and then gone past the hallway and back down the same way he had come, if he had wanted to leave through the main entrance. The surveillance cameras had no record of his leaving through that entrance, though, and neither did they have any record of his leaving through the other two entrances. So...what other way was there outside of the building? No...out of this room, even?

Mokuba rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. What duel monster card could have let him sneak out? He found he couldn't think of any. Suddenly his eyes caught sight of something. There, in the corner of the wall above the console, was an industrial sized vent. The metal grille hung loosely on one screw from the vent. Of course! It was how he had escaped from the Big Five's henchmen, after all. All of Kaiba Corporation's vents were large. He couldn't for the life of him understand why, but it was definitely an ideal way of escaping from a room without going through the door. Mokuba pointed at the vent. "There. Where does that lead?"

The head technician was considerably startled. "That...uh...it removes the cold air from this room and ejects it outside." His eyes widened as it dawned on him what Mokuba was thinking. He clapped his hands together. "If we go around the outside of the building, I'll point out where that should be. This room is, I think, closest to the south side of the building. I'll show you." Mokuba followed him back down the hallways through some turns and then outside.

It was nearing early evening. Mokuba tried to ignore his grumbling stomach in favour of his excitement about finding out how the man had escaped from the building. They crossed the parking lot and walked around to the back of the facility. This space was enclosed on all sides by office and research buildings from other corporations. They overshadowed the Kaiba facility and blocked out most of the light from the sun. In a way, the building was quite well hidden from general knowledge. Mokuba wondered how the intruder had found the place.

The technician stopped. "Well, there's that particular vent, I think." Mokuba looked up and saw that the grille on this one was off, just like the other one. The vent jutted up, out from the low roof that came over several windows. Mokuba could imagine the intruder hopping down from the vent onto the cement of the roof, and then working his way down by using the window ledges just below. It was risky, but it could be done. The vent was not too far up, anyway, so a fall would not be fatal.

He looked up at it for a moment, wondering if he should ask to get onto the roof. They'd need some sort of electric lift. Perhaps it wasn't worth the effort. Walking some distance closer, he looked around as best he could for something that might be considered a clue. He couldn't go back to his brother empty handed.

It was fortunate that he stepped in some chewing gum, or he never would have paused long enough to look down at his feet. There, lying amongst some cigarette butts and gravel, was the brown and black face of a duel monster card. Mokuba bent down, grinning. He picked it up and flipped it over to reveal the ugly image of the fiend that had caused them so much trouble. Terra the Terrible was a little dusty, but otherwise no worse for wear. Perfect.

Reaching into the pocket of his designer jeans, Mokuba pulled out his cell phone. He flipped it open and spoke his brother's name into the microphone. The number dialled instantly. Mokuba brushed the dust off of Terra while he waited for his brother to pick up. This was sure to cheer Seto up.

"Kaiba here."

Mokuba didn't waste any time getting to the point. "Hi, Seto, it's Mokuba. I found a couple of things out about that intruder that might help."

There was no mistaking the satisfaction in his brother's voice. "I knew I could count on you. Let's hear it, then." Mokuba grinned even further.

"Well, I figured out how he managed to get away. You remember how I escaped from the Big Five when you were trapped in that virtual pod? He got out through a vent, too. He must not be very tall or wide, I guess. Anyway, I walked around to the outside of the building where he must have exited the vent. And I found Terra the Terrible on the ground. He must have dropped it accidentally while he was getting away."

Seto was quick to respond. "That's good. Now, you can use the code printed on the card to find out what pack it was in, and where it was sold. That should give us a lead on him. If he bought it with a credit or debit card —even better. Get on it right away."

"Okay." Mokuba agreed.

"I've sent a picture of the man to one of my contacts in the police force, by the way. If he ever does anything else and gets caught, we'll be informed right away," Seto explained. Ah, so he was using the police a little. His brother had probably not given his contact any information, however. More money thrown away to keep somebody quiet. This intruder was turning out to be incredibly costly. Well, Mokuba thought, we have a lot of money anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter.

"I'll phone you the minute I have more information," Mokuba promised.

The elder Kaiba's voice softened a little. "Come home soon. I had the cook prepare your favourite dinner."

Mokuba's stomach growled in response, though Seto couldn't hear it. "Okay. Bye, big brother." There was a click, and then the dial tone sounded through his phone. Mokuba ended the call.

It had been a long day, but at least they were making a little progress on the mysterious man. It was likely that his brother had also contacted the Ishtars by now and discovered some more information, as well. And finding out where he had bought the duel card would hopefully lead them in the right direction. Mokuba dearly wished so. His brother had put aside his new duel disk designs in order to deal with this. Emitting a low sigh, Mokuba slid the phone back into his pocket and turned to the lab technician, who stood patiently some feet away from him. "Thank you for the tour of the facility. But now I have some other things I have to do, so I'm leaving. I'll check up on the progress of all of this updating later, though."

"Of course, sir." The tone was slightly tired, as though addressing the teenager with such respect was wearing on his good mood. Mokuba gave him a look, and he tried to appear rebuked.

"Good-bye, then." Mokuba returned to the parking lot, where the black limousine was waiting for him. The driver must have seen him in his rear-view mirror, because he got out of the front seat and opened the door for Mokuba. He slid in.

Well, Mokuba thought, one last destination before I can go home.

Terra the Terrible felt mildly warm in his grip.

xXx

In Japan, a black limousine was pulling away from a research facility. Meanwhile, in California, a white one pulled up a long driveway to a house. It stopped at the long stone staircase that led up to the lavishly decorated front entrance. Two stone statues of duel monsters stood guard on either side of the rosy pink door. One was called Toon Summoned Skull, and it grinned maniacally, its wings curled against its back in a gesture of friendliness. The other was called Toon Mermaid. She was frozen in position inside of a clam shell, blowing a kiss, her bow and arrow resting against her side. The doorknob was carved to resemble the wide mouth of the Pot of Greed card, and it was painted in the reds and yellows of the card's mouth. Roman styled columns, two on each side, held aloft an arched roof over the entrance. There was a man in a suit who waited under the roof. Now, as the limousine pulled to a stop, he walked down to open the door.

A tall man exited the vehicle, carrying a binder. He was dressed in a suit as well, though his was pink, not black. He had long white hair, yet he was not old in the least. His playful expression accentuated this. "Welcome home, Mr. Pegasus."

Pegasus put one hand in his pocket, and swaggered up the staircase. "Bring some red wine up to my room, Croquet. It's been a long day." He called over his shoulder. Croquet closed the door of the limo and it drove away. He hurried up the staircase behind Pegasus.

Pegasus entered the wide entrance hall and removed his shoes. A long, curling staircase led upstairs from either side of this room. A large and delicate crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling on a gold chain. Doorways between the staircases and on either side of the front door led off to other areas of the house. He ascended the stairs, resting one hand gently on the banister as he went. A flowery carpet running along the middle of the stairs cushioned his sore feet. He'd been at work all day, and he really just felt like sitting down for a while to enjoy some wine. At the top of the stairs he turned and walked some ways down a hall before opening a door that led to his bedroom.

It was a good sized room, which is to say that aside from the bed and the dressers and the walk-in closet, there was also a fireplace and a couch and chair in front of it. A little table rested in front of the couch. Pegasus placed the binder down on it and sat down. He flipped it open, revealing pages of drawings. These were the latest duel card designs. His designers at Industrial Illusions had given him a lot to think about. Some of the designs needed tweaking, but overall he felt quiet good about their latest creations. He thought that he might like to hand-paint some of these himself, actually. It would be an enjoyable project.

He was shocked out of his thoughts by a voice he thought he recognized. A voice he had hidden in the depths of his memory, one that brought back so many images that he'd tried to forget. It was so familiar, this voice, but he couldn't quite figure out whose it was...

"You are a designer of cards, that much I can see. But have you traded in your dueling skills in order to design? Have you forgotten what it means to be a duelist over all these years?"

He rose from his couch shakily, trying to place where the voice had come from. "Who are you?" He waited in the silence for an answer, but none seemed to be forthcoming. Perhaps he had only been imagining it? He decided to test this, and said aloud the answer to the questions he had heard. "Dueling...I can still hold my own in a duel. Come out and let me show you." He declared.

There was a slight shimmer that emanated from the mirror on the dresser across from his bed. Pegasus moved away from the couch and warily approached the mirror, close enough to see but still some distance away. An image was forming on its surface. It was indistinct at first, but then soon he could make out what it was. He reeled in amazement. There was an image of a man on his mirror: his skin was dark, and his hair was bound up in a turban. Golden earrings were in his ears. His robes were white, and around his neck there was another golden thing. It looked a bit like a key. In one hand the man held a set of golden scales.

With blank eyes the man watched Pegasus. Soon he was not just an image in the mirror, but rather an image in front of it, perfectly solid looking. Pegasus knew otherwise.

"Shadi," he exclaimed.

The man spoke again. "It is good that you are still able to duel. You will need those skills in the times to come...keep your deck with you now, at all times, to protect you." Shadi spoke coolly, without any discernable emotion. His words were ominous and confusing. "I have brought you something that will cause greedy minds to come after it, something that belongs to you. Something that you were chosen to have, Pegasus, chosen specifically to wield its incredible power." Pegasus could not believe what he was hearing. What on earth was Shadi going on about? "I am returning it to you now...because it belongs with no one else." The image of Shadi was disappearing now, and soon he could see clean through the man.

Pegasus called out desperately. "Wait! What are you talking about? What are you giving me? I don't understand. Give me some answers," but he was too late, and Shadi was gone, like a wisp of a memory he'd forgotten he'd even had.

Pegasus stared into the empty space that the spirit had once occupied. His mind whirled from the unexpected encounter. What could this all mean? His eyes were drawn to the top of the dresser, where there rested a small brown box. His name was engraved elegantly across one of the sides, and he could see the reflection of it from the mirror. This was the box that contained his dueling deck. Shadi had said he would need it...

He strode up to the dresser and slid the box closer to him. He removed the lid. And there was something he had thought he would never seen again. It rested just on top of his favourite card. The edges of Toon World were only somewhat visible, with only some green and half of the name peeking out from beneath the object. Pegasus reached in and removed the object with some amount of trepidation. His fingers caressed the smooth surface of the Millennium Eye.

The powers of the Shadow Realm called out to his mind in welcoming, and he felt every nerve vibrate with the awesome strength pouring from the Eye and leaking into his fingers.

There was a knock at the door. Pegasus started, then made an effort to reclaim his thoughts. He found his tongue and swallowed. "Come in." His trusted servant entered, balancing a tray with wine and a glass on one hand. Croquet strode over to the table and placed the tray down.

"Is there anything else I can do for you, sir?" He asked.

Pegasus clenched his fingers around the Item that his servant had not yet seen. He paused to consider the matter, knowing that Croquet would wait. And then, he knew exactly what he wanted.

"Yes, actually. I want you to charter my private jet for Domino, Japan. I would like to go there as soon as I am finished with these new card designs. Next week or so. Check my schedule." Pegasus said airily.

Croquet blinked his eyes. He spoke his next words a little cautiously, "Sir? Why Domino?" Confusion was evident on his face.

Pegasus let out an amused laugh. He wagged one finger at his servant. "I'm just going for a little visit." His lips curled upward in a mischievous smile. Croquet looked a little uneasy. "I want to see what my pals Yuugi-boy and Kaiba-boy are up to." Croquet hesitated, before bowing and leaving the room.

Pegasus turned back to the Item in his hand, threw it in the air, and then caught it easily. He looked over at the wine, and then poured himself a generous portion. He brought the flute to his lips and sipped. It tasted delicious. Sitting back down on the couch, he drank again and leaned back into the cushions. The trip to Japan was already making him excited. Well, he hadn't been there in quite a long while. Pegasus thought that many of the people there would not be in the least bit happy to see him, but he frankly didn't care. He needed to find out how the Items had been removed from the Chamber. And perhaps he'd challenge a few of them to a duel, for old times' sake?

It was going to be a good trip.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

It was early morning in Domino City. The downtown was not yet crowded with duelists, and the shops were just starting to open. Coffee houses served the odd person coming in for a cup of caffeine and a muffin. Two people stood outside of one game shop, looking in the store window at the duel cards lined up under a glass case. As it was dark inside the shop, they pressed their noses against the glass to get a better look. Both were duelists, as was evident by the duel disks latched onto their arms.

One of them, a young man with blue hair and round glasses, spoke to the other. "It's not like I need to upgrade my deck," he claimed in a confident tone, "I just think that it'd be a good time to add new, more powerful insect monsters to my deck. I haven't got any new cards in a while, that's all. And with new monsters I'd be able to beat you even faster," he mocked.

The second person looked very annoyed at this. He pulled away from the window and jabbed a finger at the man with the blue hair. "Listen, Weevil, just because you beat me in the regional finals all those years ago, it doesn't mean that you can beat me now. I'm ten times the duelist I was back then!" He shook his head angrily, making his long brown hair fan out in a wave.

Weevil laughed in amusement, and swiped his hand at the finger still jabbed into his green jacket. "I'm still the better duelist, Rex. Or do you want to duel me to try and prove me wrong? Even though it'd be a futile effort," he taunted. Rex clenched his hands into fists.

The average passer-by might have thought that these two were unfriendly acquaintances, or perhaps rivals. Looking closer, however, uncovered the odd bond that the two duelists had formed. As much as they argued back and forth over trivial matters, one could still find them hanging out together. They were friends.

"I'll rip you apart with my dinosaurs, Weevil, and then you'll regret challenging me," Rex snapped.

All right, so it was very hard to see. That didn't mean it wasn't still there.

A man had come up behind the two while they spoke, and now he interjected. "I hope you don't mind me bothering you, but you two are duelists, right?" He asked uncertainly.

Weevil and Rex whirled around and looked at him strangely. The man who had spoken was dressed in the oddest clothing. Hiking boots and a brown cape? He looked tired, like he hadn't been sleeping for several days. Circles were under his eyes. Rex snorted at him. "Of course we're duelists, you idiot. See our duel disks?" He held up his arm and the silver object flashed in the man's eyes. Weevil sneered.

The man nodded. "I've just put together a new deck and I've been looking for someone to try it out on," he began, glancing between the two, as if sizing them up, "I was hoping you might be interested in a little duel?" He questioned.

Weevil and Rex couldn't help the look of surprise that crossed their faces. They glanced at each other, and then looked at him with the same look that he had given them. Looking him over. Seeing if he was worth it. "You're challenging me, old man? I was a regional finalist once, you know. I'm not your average duelist!" Rex huffed, raising his chin a little and planting his hands on his hips.

Weevil was equally as irritated. "And I was the regional champion once," with one finger he adjusted his glasses on his nose, and then crossed his arms over his chest. He bared his teeth in what might constitute as a smile. "You'd be wasting my time."

The man was pleased at finding out their status as duelists, but he didn't let them see that. Instead he said, trying to get them to agree, "Well, then duel me as a team. That way you'll win more quickly. I only wanted to test out my deck, that's all."

Rex and Weevil considered it with a frown on each of their faces. Then Rex said, "I guess it'd be good to blow off some steam. What's your name, old man?"

"Just call me Dr. Yoshida," He said easily. His hand came out from beneath his cape, exposing his own duel disk. "But could we duel somewhere less public? I don't really want to be seen..." he could not think of how to phrase what he wanted to say, and settled for leaving his sentence hanging.

It was Weevil who decided to answer him. "Oh, I get it. You're such an amateur so you don't want anybody to see your embarrassing defeat. Well, that's fine by me. I could care less where we duel, old man, just so long as we get it over with quickly. You can only amuse me for so long, after all. And I have duel cards to buy, just as soon as this game shop opens," he said, shooting a grin at Rex.

Rex laughed in turn. "Yeah, yeah. Whatever, I could care less."

He was glad that they had agreed so easily. The real truth was much more difficult to understand. He needed discretion because of the terrible deeds he had done. If his face ended up on television, he might be caught. And it wasn't the fear of ending up in jail that bothered him, but a much deeper secret. It was the fear of what the voice would do to everyone once it found out that he had been captured. The voice that even now rang in his head, plotting its moves, demanding his compliance. And the voice had reasons for wanting discretion, too. It was coming up with a plan that centered around the Duel King, and it did not want Yuugi to find out about them just yet. Dr. Yoshida did not understand the plan in the least (the voice did not tell him much), but he felt fear just the same for the innocent man whom had so much hate directed towards him. And now the voice was interested in figuring out the perfect dueling deck. He wondered if the plan somehow involved beating Yuugi in a duel, although he could not imagine how a card game would solve anything. And then he remembered how Terra the Terrible had ripped open the thick metal door. Had knocked the security guards unconscious. Had taken bullets and not even noticed. With these thoughts he trembled.

{These two will do nicely. Now we can test out our new deck.}

But he didn't know how to duel, he barely knew the rules at all. How was he supposed to beat a previous regional finalist and regional champion? It wasn't possible, it couldn't be done. He did not see why he had to challenge them, but the voice had demanded it. And now he had to duel them.

{Ah, but it won't be you who will be dueling, of course.}

It wouldn't? But then who? Oh, thought Dr. Yoshida, no, no. But he could already hear the laughter ringing in his ears. His mind was already fading, and he found the world was disappearing (the sounds and sights were dimming, the smells of coffee and fresh air halting). He was fading into unconsciousness, even as the voice took over.

Rex and Weevil noticed no difference when Dr. Yoshida blinked and was suddenly replaced by a creature far more menacing. "Now," he said, testing out his voice, "shall we go? I know an abandoned warehouse that's just past these buildings." Weevil and Rex followed him as he led them down several alleyways and into the said warehouse.

They did not know it, but it was actually the very same warehouse which had nearly burned down years before, where the King of Games had battled a minion of the creature's and had just barely escaped with his life. Now it was the very place where it would test out the deck that it planned on using against the same man. Dr. Yoshida's mouth let out a small chuckle. The creature possessing him enjoyed irony. The dueling platforms had long since been removed, their machinery mostly destroyed by the flame and smoke. Now he and the regional duelists stood in the empty space that the virtual system had once occupied, the cement blackened around the shape of where the system had once been. There were no lights, but the windows were high and let in enough sunlight.

The creature that occupied Dr. Yoshida's body thrust out his arm and allowed the duel disk to send out its virtual generator systems. His dueling deck was already in place, and so his life points flashed onto the screen. Rex and Weevil activated their disks as well, though only one sent out its two virtual generators to his side of the field. Two thousand life points flashed onto each of their screens. He had said he would duel them as a team, but they had decided not to share their allotted four thousand life points. They had chosen to half each of their own life points, apparently. That was fine by him. All three of them drew their respective hands.

"Duel!"

The game had started.

"Since I am the challenger, I will go first," the creature who occupied Dr. Yoshida's body declared. It drew a card and considered its hand calmly. "I summon Mystic Lamp in attack mode," it dropped the card onto a monster space. The golden object, which looked like a teapot, appeared floating in front of Dr. Yoshida. Smoke curled up from its spout.

_Mystic Lamp Dark_

_Spellcaster_

_ATK/400 DEF/300_

Weevil and Rex seemed a little stunned. "You're summoning that puny thing?" Weevil mocked, "now I know for sure how long it will take to beat you! Less than three turns!" He let out a bark of laughter, and Rex joined him.

The creature was enjoying its time out of the cold recesses of its host's mind, and it settled into the flesh of the man more deeply. Flexing his fingers and wriggling his toes, it marvelled at the contradictory it sensed. A real body was definitely strong in a sense, being able to interact with other real creatures and inanimate objects with ease, where the creature would have had difficulties. However; it knew the host lacked magic, and the ability to wield it. In fact, Dr. Yoshida was so non-magical you could even go so far as to say he repelled it, and the Rod responded aversely to this. It took a great deal of effort to take up residence in the man's body, and a further boost of energy to even attempt taking over from there. Since he had no magic of his own, the creature had to resort to using its own energy supply, which was limited. The situation was not satisfactory in the least.

It let the corners of his lips tweak up in a small smile. Even exerting the effort and energy needed to remain in control did not bother it at the moment. This was the first time in a long while that it had had a proper duel, after all, and it intended to enjoy it.

A face down joined the Lamp, and the creature ended its turn silently.

Weevil's turn followed. He was a duelist with a dramatic flair, and he tended to like mocking his opponents when he was certain of victory. In a flash of purple, Weevil sent Mystic Lamp to the graveyard with a few parting words. "Say good-bye to your Lamp, and whatever plans you had along with it," he snickered. His opponent did not seem particularly bothered by the move. Smiling widely, Weevil flung a card down. "Now I summon my Killer Needle, ready to offend!" The massive bee burst onto the field, raising its stinger and staring down Weevil's opponent with its rounded compound eyes.

Dr. Yoshida's eyes tracked the bee's movements.

Rex's summoning was more powerful and twice the size of the first target. A snarling two-headed violet tyrannosaurus towered over the field and clenched its clawed hands. Dr. Yoshida's face remained stoic. To the creature, both monsters were already dead, their noisy movements halting as they crashed to the concrete floor, a shower of holographic sparks and lights illuminating the arena. Feet shifting eagerly, it awaited its turn with a slight impatience.

Sparing a sideways glance at Weevil, Rex huffed with indignation. They had partnered in a duel once before against a man called Siegfried, and had lost horribly. He was highly doubtful that they could accomplish any sort of combinations (even if he knew his partner's deck inside and out), and knew Weevil would have no interest in coming to his rescue should something occur (because he certainly wouldn't come to Weevil's rescue). Not that he would need rescuing. Weevil was the one with the strategies —he planned on just coming at the guy fast and hard with the most powerful monsters in his deck. Traps were for duelists who just didn't have the firepower. Oh, but Rex definitely had firepower. And he would prove it. Two-Headed King Rex was itching for a fight.

The duel was a spectacular display of posturing and snide remarks, which greatly amused the creature. The game became something better than he had expected, so his by-the-book stratagems were quickly discarded. They fought through a few turns, which was obviously more than the regional duelists expected. Their attitude did not change, though, and they continued to look down on him as a nothing. That would have to be amended, and the creature's mind swirled with possibilities as it analyzed its opponents. The brown-haired individual enjoyed power-heavy monsters with more teeth than their mouths seemed able to hold, while the grinning regional champion proved to have more insight than his friend. His tactics were interesting, and he seemed to hold his ground when something didn't work out. The difference in their skill was noticeable, if not enormous.

An odd combination of cards brought Mystic Lamp back onto the field beside the turtle creature Hyosube. Rex blinked both eyes and then let out a sharp laugh. His newest dinosaur card appeared to catch onto his mood and growled mockingly at its enemies. Weevil was not amused. He knew what was coming next. The combination that Dr. Yoshida was pulling was a little uncommon, to be sure, but he knew enough about the game to recognize the manoeuvre. His hand dropped to his duel disk, ready to activate his face down if need be. And then the ground beneath them rumbled.

"I activate Polymerization," one press of the button beneath the specific slot caused the face down card to turn face up. A swirling vortex of wind and light appeared on the field, and began to suck the monsters nearest to it in. "I'm fusing my two monsters together in order to create...Roaring Ocean Snake." The monsters finished entering the vortex, and soon another, new monster appeared from its depths. It was a monster who, in size, would have matched the Two-Headed King Rex had it still been alive. It had ruddy brown scales, and a long curling body with sickly green fins. Its head was not large, but it had a long jaw, with a row of sharp scissor-like teeth and a dark purple tongue inside. It opened this mouth now, breathing out with a snarl. If the holograms had odours, Rex was sure the most horrid one would be spewing from its mouth. Suddenly the situation was not quite as funny.

_Roaring Ocean Snake Water_

_Aqua_

_ATK/2100 DEF/1800_

Laughing now, it called out its next move. "Now, my beast, attack the Hornedsauras!" Best not to attack the duelist with the face down card. The regional finalist, not the champion, would make the better target. Or would the insect duelist protect his partner?

The Ocean Snake slithered across the playing field with incredible speed. In moments, it had reached the dinosaur, and then it began to wrap its long body around it. It used its strength to squeeze the life out of the monster, and the Hornedsauras shook violently to the side before groaning in defeat and dissipating in a flash. Weevil sneered at his partner, who looked a little angry at the loss. "See, Rex, this is why you're supposed to think..._before_ you place your monster on the field."

The life points clicked down from Rex's total. "Shut up, Weevil," he returned in annoyance, "don't be a back seat duelist. I'll make my moves, and you can make yours. And don't get in my way," he warned. Weevil's sneer morphed into a scowl.

It was interesting how easily they had begun to argue with each other, when only a while before they had both been laughing at the prospect of winning quickly. Perhaps this was a flaw in each of them that could be taken advantage of? The creature inside of Dr. Yoshida's body shifted in curiosity.

Dr. Yoshida's hands were trembling slightly. Frowning with his face, the creature contemplated this. It was true, his body was not completely comfortable. It was as if it was an improper fit: the mind was confusing and strange to deal with, and sometimes the orders it gave the body did not reach it, and it disobeyed him. Now as it tried, it found that it could not stop the shaking. This was not Dr. Yoshida's doing, no. This was some new perplexity, some reason that the creature could not comprehend. This was the body itself. The creature's old body had been much more to its liking. It had worked effortlessly, and would have been a perfect match, had the occupant of the body not decided to get rid of the being living in his mind. He had been so willing at first, so ready to do whatever was suggested to him, that the betrayal had come as a complete shock. He had helped, along with that Yuugi Mutou, and the Pharaoh, to send it to the Shadow Realm, to banish it from this world that it now thrived in. It'd take revenge on him too, for what he had done. And then it could retake the body that it had originally been in, and get rid of this useless one. There were others, too, others to destroy...

There was a strange sensation plaguing its mind, that distracted it from the gunfire of the regional champion's Laser Cannon Armour, and that pushed aside its thoughts of the vicious Sword Arm of Dragon defending its owner's life points. It was unfamiliar, and though it thought it might know a word for it, the word it knew did not explain why the feeling was occurring. Bothered and confused, the creature became more aggressive in its attacks. Something wasn't right was the situation. Some strange emotion fed from the recesses of its mind —no, that wasn't it, it must be the host's fault— was chaining the creature down, and it was growing ever more irritating.

Pinch Hopper exploded in a brilliant display of bug guts and twitching appendages. Weevil cackled. "Now, due to its effect, I'm allowed to summon any monster from my hand as a special summon," Weevil's opponent was cursing silently, grinding his teeth. "Go, my glorious Insect Queen!"

_"...you forgot my Jam Defender is still in play, which means my Revival Jam will intercept all your attacks!"_

Where had that come from? Nonsense. Utter nonsense. It had to stop such foolish reminiscing. The past was the past. And the creature most certainly did not have that deck anymore. Not to mention the cards it had contained were rare and expensive. It would have been difficult to recreate it.

"Insect Queen, attack his Roaring Ocean Snake!" Soldier Ant was gobbled up in an instant to fuel the immensely more powerful Queen, who hissed in delight. The large monster, spindly legs impossibly supporting her heavy body, then skittered over to the Snake, who coiled in upon itself in hopeless defence. Insect Queen chomped down on its thick neck, devouring a chunk of the monster's muscle and snapping the bones with a crunch. Ocean Snake roared its defeat, dissipating. Weevil smiled widely.

_"...sacrifice Jam Breeder and my three Slime Tokens in order to summon the beast of your ultimate destruction!"_

The creature started. That was _it_. That was the feeling. Here it was duelling with a new deck, while vividly being reminded of the lack of rare and powerful —familiar cards— each time it glanced at its hand. It _missed _its old deck. Ridiculously, impossibly, but it did.

Rex took the blatant opportunity and summoned a Tritopsera to attack his life points. Trying to shed the unnatural feeling that had no connection to hate or anger, the creature renewed its focus on the duel and activated a spell to shield itself. "Go, Book of Moon! Change the position of his Tritopsera!" The flying dinosaur twisted in mid-air, invisible forces pulling it downward, though it struggled to remain in the air. But it was no match for the magic of his spell. Tritopsera reluctantly dropped to the ground and was sucked into the card below it, before the card flipped over into a horizontal position. Trapped, for now. Rex and his opponent glared at each other over their cards.

He may be old, thought Weevil, but he certainly knows a thing or two about duel monsters. It's as if he acted like an uncertain nobody just to trick us. So this isn't the first time he's put together a deck...

The regional duelists blasted away at their opponent, who fought back with vigour. Smoke swept across the field and had barely disappeared before they came up with new attacks. Rex managed to tribute and Serpent Night Dragon joined the fray, destroying the latest of Dr. Yoshida's monsters. Their opponent did not look too concerned, and it bothered them that while their life points had been steadily decreasing, his barely had a bite taken out of it. In fact, perhaps the only reason that they had lasted as long as they had might be due to his obvious distraction and mental fatigue. The man had clearly not slept in a while.

Looking up at the Serpent Night Dragon hovering protectively over its master, and the Insect Queen wearing an expression to match the cocky grin on Weevil's face, Dr. Yoshida's face formed a glare and a final strategy was calculated for victory.

Rex and Weevil were arguing. "This duel would have ended much quicker if you had just powered up that bumblebee of yours instead of letting it get destroyed. You wasted your Laser Cannon on the grasshopper, bug brain."

"_Bumblebee_? _Grasshopper_? My insect monsters are far superior to your flying purple lizard!" Weevil retorted angrily.

"I have drawn Pot of Greed. I'll activate it now, allowing me to draw two more cards," their opponent said aloud, though Rex and Weevil each gave him a half-hearted glance before returning to their argument. Glancing down at the cards in his hands, the creature considered the best move to make. Should it focus on destroying Rex, or Weevil?

"I activate Ookazi. It deals eight hundred points of direct damage to my opponent," stated the creature, sliding the trap card into a slot. Rex and Weevil both looked up, startled. Eight hundred was a lot of points this late into the game.

"What...?" Rex reached one hand up to his head and pushed his red toque up a little, as though he wasn't sure if he was seeing properly. But it was still there after he had pushed his lavender bangs aside: the bright purple trap, with a depiction of a burning house on it.

"You were busy arguing and ended your turn without bothering to set any cards," came the cruel voice of the creature, smirking with Dr. Yoshida's mouth. It levelled a look at Rex. "For destroying my monster, I think I'll make you the target of this attack. Go!" At his command, the card took effect, and then a flare of red-hot fire streaked towards Rex. In its devotion, the Serpent Night Dragon tried to protect its master by moving its body into the path of the fire, but the blaze had a mind of its own. Fuelled by the power of the trap card, it ducked under the Dragon's belly and hit Rex. He let out a loud cry, trying to shield his head with his arms. The duel disk beeped as it calculated the deduction from his life points. Horrified, Rex looked at the screen as the blaze died away. Not many points remained.

Weevil could not resist a jab at his partner. "This is what you get for not paying attention, Rex." Rex could only clench his fists in response: the evidence was too clear to be denied.

"Now, I summon Morinphen." Neither regional duelist had heard the name before, but what appeared before them was even stranger than the name. Blue, with amphibian-like features, it sported the head of a shark and the red wings of an insect. Its long arms drooped at its sides. Dr. Yoshida snapped a magic card into a slot. "And I'm equipping my monster with Mask of Brutality."

_Morinphen Dark_

_Fiend_

_ATK/ 2550 DEF/300_

Dr. Yoshida pointed his finger at Rex. "You will be the first to lose. Morinphen, attack his Serpent Night Dragon," he drawled. Rex fumbled backward, horrified. This was it? This was how he would lose? A lousy fiend taking down the awesome force of his dragon? This couldn't be happening. The difference in strength between the two monsters was small, to be sure, but he didn't have the life points to spare.

Morinphen drifted closer in agonizing slowness. The Dragon curled in the air, before snapping its long jaw forward and attempting to bite off one of the Morinphen's delicate red wings. But the fiend was too quick, and dodged appropriately, before reaching one clawed arm up and swiping; Serpent Night Dragon's head slid clean off to the floor and disappeared before the blood could even start to flow.

Rex's life points dropped down to zero.

"Make your move, regional champion. I end my turn."

Weevil looked down at his deck, and for a moment, he could hear the King of Games and his annoying voice, declaring...

"_Put your heart in the game, and there is nothing you can't do."_

Yeah, that 'believe in the heart of the cards' nonsense. This game was about strategy and intelligence. What he needed now was something that could help to take down that fiend. His face down Man-Eater Bug might do, but for the meantime, he could only sit back and await his opponent. Weevil set a card (which did not seem to be of any use, but it could possibly help), changed his Insect Queen to defence, and ended his turn. The mocking words had all left him by now, and he was irritated to say that he found himself in a possible corner. If only he had drawn his Petit Moth early on, then he could have transformed it into the Great Moth and would have already won the duel.

Drawing a card, Weevil's opponent considered him briefly before making a decision, life points ticking down dangerously low in payment for the Mask his monster wore. One more attack would do him in. If Weevil could just last this one turn... "Morinphen, destroy his face down monster!" Weevil reeled in surprise, he hadn't seen _that_ one coming. Why wouldn't he attack his Queen, who might be a threat if Weevil powered her up further? Why go for the unknown in the equation? His breath was cut short as Man-Eater Bug sprang up from underneath its card, forcibly impaling itself on the fiend's claws in order to rip a hole through the enemy's neck. Both monsters shattered into fragments of light. What Weevil could not understand was that even with that fiend gone, his fingers were still clenched tightly around his cards, not relaxing even a smidgen.

Dr. Yoshida seemed to nod in confirmation of some theory. The older duelist raised an eyebrow at Weevil. "Thought that you could stop me with that pathetic trap? Sorry, kid. And now you're open for an attack. I summon Gray Wing in attack mode," his eyes were alight with imminent victory. The slim and agile dragon that appeared let out a deep roar, and flapped its wings, hovering above Dr. Yoshida.

_Gray Wing Wind_

_Dragon_

_ATK/1300 DEF/700_

"Now, I'm equipping it with Amulet of Ambition to increase its attack points. And then I discard the final card in my hand to activate its effect. Now, remove his Queen from the field and attack him directly!"

Gray Wing burst forward with a gust of wind, diving low to rake razor-sharp claws across the Queen's thorax. She screeched in fury and flashed out of existence. Weevil tried to think of a way out of the situation that he suddenly found himself in, but found that he couldn't. All he could do was wait for his defeat. It was a difficult concept to accept. Gray Wing flipped over and took a dive at the insect duelist. Weevil's eyes widened, and he backed up, thinking that the monster was about to slam into him, and although it would go right through, the idea was still intimidating. At the last moment, the dragon tipped its wings and flew over Weevil, missing him by mere inches. The force of the wind underneath its wings flung Weevil back, and he landed on the ground some distance away with a thump.

Weevil's life points dropped down to zero.

Dr. Yoshida's Gray Wing made one final roar before disappearing. The duel was over. Rex and Weevil stared at the duelist across from them, still trying to comprehend what had happened. Their disk screens read zero, but that couldn't really be true, could it? Could this nobody have really beaten a regional finalist and champion?

Rex located his voice before Weevil, and ground out, "Hey, who _are_ you, really?" He sounded irritated, as well as suspicious. What was this guy hiding from them?

Dr. Yoshida turned his glance to Rex and smiled widely. He then turned his eyes upward, and appeared to consider the matter. Then, from beneath his cloak, he drew something golden. It was a rod, with a strange picture of an eye carved on the rounded head. Dr. Yoshida stared down at it lovingly as he spoke. "Who am I really?" There was a strange look on his face, one that Rex and Weevil had been slow to recognize, having not seen it on someone in a while. It was a look reminiscent of the one a man called Dartz had once had; they understood him now, from the way he set his mouth, the way he looked in his eyes. This was a man who was planning some foul destruction, who was scheming for someone's demise. And that strange rod...why did it bear the same symbol of an eye that the pyramid of Yuugi's had? "You need not concern yourselves with things that you are not involved with. You two were only tools, you see? The real person I'm after is Yuugi, who will hopefully be a much more challenging opponent."

Confused and further annoyed, Rex started to speak again, but Weevil interjected. "There's no point in talking to that man any further, Rex. He's obviously loony." Weevil said in exasperation, and picked himself up off of the cement floor. The dinosaur duelist glanced at him, and then jumped a little as the two holographic generators on their side of the field powered down and then shot back into the duel disk strapped onto Dr. Yoshida's arm. The man was striding quickly out of the warehouse, now, having no more use for the two duelists.

"Hey, come back here! What did you mean by what you just said?" Rex yelled, ignoring Weevil's suggestion. He wanted answers, but to his displeasure the man kept walking and soon disappeared from their sight.

There was silence in the warehouse then, save for the whirring of the holographic generators as they powered down and returned to Weevil's duel disk. Rex stared down at his own disk, then drew a card from his deck in curiosity. He groaned aloud.

"What?" Weevil snipped at him.

"My next card!" Rex pulled at his hair and huffed, "it was Trap Hole! Ugh!"

Weevil blinked and then sighed, adjusting his yellow framed glasses with one finger. "See, Rex, this is why you'll always be a second-rate duelist."

Rex stomped over to him and jabbed one finger into his arm. "Yeah, and what does that make you, bug boy? Setting a card that couldn't even be used? Are you third-rate, then?" He taunted.

The regional champion sneered, not particularly riled by his comment. "We'll see about that, Rex. We still have a duel to play, don't we? Or are you going to back down from the challenge I made earlier this morning?" He tilted his head in mock uncertainty.

"As if. The duel's still on, Weevil, right after we strengthen our decks. That store should be open now, after all." Rex pulled away and turned towards the door. Weevil came to his side and together they left the warehouse. They were both still somewhat bothered by their defeat, but the prospect of new duel cards was putting them back into a good mood. "Hey," Rex added suddenly, seeming to forget his anger towards the insect duelist he walked beside, "what about all that nonsense he was spewing? Should we go find Yuugi and let him know a guy's wandering around looking for him?"

Shaking his head, Weevil's lips thinned into a straight line, "Why on earth would we do that, you idiot?"

"Well, maybe we should warn him. I mean, I guess we owe him one. He did save us from Dartz, remember." Rex reminded him.

"That was the Pharaoh. And you seem to conveniently forget a certain Joey Wheeler helped." Weevil shot back. He was not pleased that Rex had even started this line of conversation, so he had purposefully brought up the one thing that would shut Rex up.

Rex scrunched up his face. He strongly disliked Joey, and still hadn't forgiven him for taking one of his most valued cards. But a guilty twinge was striking the back of his mind, and so he made one last attempt at talking Weevil into it. "Yeah, and him. Well, I just didn't like the look on his face, that was all. It reminded me of Dartz when he handed us The Seal of Orichalcos cards. That's all." Rex admitted.

Weevil stopped in his tracks, and Rex followed suit, confused. They were at a street corner: turning left, they could go back down to the row of duel shops that they had previously been at. But Weevil was not looking that way. "Well? What is it?" Rex grumbled.

He was treated with one of Weevil's sharp glares. "Fine, we'll go see little Yuugi. But only because we owe him one. And the moment we let him know about this crazy man, we're even." Turning sharply on his heel, Weevil began walking across the street and down the path that would lead them into the residential district of Domino. Rex hurried to catch up.

Both walked stiffly, shoulders tense and backs straight. They knew the King of Games would not be happy to see them.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

It was late morning, and the sun was beating down warmly onto the concrete of the city. Humming a cheerful tune and walking briskly down the street was a young man. He carried a bag of groceries in one hand, and a box of chocolate-covered bread sticks in the other. Munching on one in his mouth, he paused to shift the weight of the bag into his other hand, dropping the box inside. Something caught his attention: there was an argument going on between two men across the street. He recognized them both. Swallowing the last bit of his treat, he crossed the street to see what the problem was.

"You said we were supposed to turn left at that last corner!" Shouted the man with the dark hair. The vest and the red toque were probably a little much on the warm day they were having, but he did not seem to be too bothered by it.

"I haven't been there before! I'm doing the best I can with the information I've gotten from other duelists, you dimwit." Responded the other man, dressed all in lime green. A black cockroach was printed on the front of his jacket.

He approached them cautiously. "Excuse me," he interrupted politely, "I don't mean to bother either of you, but is there something I can do to help? You seem a little lost, if I may say so."

They both stopped their argument abruptly, and turned to him in surprise. The dark-haired man seemed a little confused, but the one dressed in green blinked his eyes in recognition. He stared at his attire: the crease-free pants, the blue shirt with the collar, and the thin cream sweater that contrasted with his snow-white hair. "Ah, you're one of Yuugi's cheerleader friends, aren't you? What was your name again? Bakura, was that it?"

He smiled in turn, and laughed a little in embarrassment. "Yeah, that's me, I guess. And you're Weevil and Rex, am I right?" His almond eyes hid nothing from them: he was interested in helping, and they could see that clearly.

Weevil crossed his arms over his chest. "Yeah, that's right. Listen, there is something you can do to help. We're looking for Yuugi's house. We have to talk to him about something. Do you know where it is?" The insect duelist did not seem to be in an exceptionally good mood. One eye was twitching behind the lens of his glasses. But then again, Rex did not look like he was in a good mood either. His mouth was set in a deep frown, and his hands rested stiffly on his hips. He looked defiant, as though Bakura might challenge him to a duel at any moment.

Not being one to pry, Bakura decided not to ask what they were wanting to talk to Yuugi about. "I know where the Game Shop is. I can lead you there, if you like. We're not too far from it, actually." He offered.

Rex and Weevil softened their hard looks a bit. "Good," Rex said, relieved, "lead away, then."

They walked on past the rows of used book stores, coffee shops, and corner stores, heading into the streets that had houses on either side. After some minutes of walking in awkward silence, they came to the road that the Game Shop was on. It stood by itself across the path where they were standing, with the lights on behind the windows and an 'open' sign hanging from the other side of the glass door. "So this is where the King of Games lives," Rex spoke, a little uneasily. The store was painted in bright colours, but neither Weevil or Rex seemed to find the look of the store very welcoming. Bakura wondered what this was all about. Did they really want to see Yuugi or not?

He strode up to the door of the Shop and pulled it open. The bell jingled lightly. Rex and Weevil followed hastily before Bakura could close the door on them. They looked around at the games lining the shelves, games of all sorts, with the most prominent being Duel Monsters. The collection was varied and quite extensive. Bakura started to call out, but just then an elderly man entered the storefront from a doorway. "Oh, Bakura! It's so good to see you. How have you been?" He shuffled forward, and shook Bakura's hand. His eyes drifted behind him, however, looking curiously at the two men standing uncomfortably there, near the front door.

"I've been good, Mr. Mutou." Bakura withdrew his hand and followed his gaze. He smiled hesitantly. "These two are Weevil Underwood and Rex Raptor. I believe you might have heard of them. They've come to see Yuugi about something. Is he home?" The question was carried with a hopeful tone; Bakura had not talked to Yuugi in a while and he was interested in seeing how he was doing.

The old man scratched his chin. "Yeah, he's here. I'll go get him for you, shall I? Just a minute, please." He turned back and went through the doorway he had just entered through, leaving the three to stand in the shop waiting.

Bakura cleared his throat quietly. "I'm sorry for saying so, but I was under the impression that you two didn't really like Yuugi...?" He left his sentence hanging.

Weevil snorted a little, and Rex said, "Yeah. We don't." Bakura understood. There was to be no more conversation between them, then.

They were spared from any more awkward silence when the person that they had been waiting for entered the room. "Bakura!" He called out in delight, and came forward, smiling. Yuugi's metal chains clinked at his belt as he walked.

"Hullo! It's been too long, hasn't it?" Bakura said sincerely.

Yuugi stopped in his tracks and stared in confusion at the two people behind Bakura. "Rex and Weevil? What are you two doing here?" His smile faded; these were two people whom he would really rather not be seeing. It struck him as strange that here were two more duelists that he had not seen in a while, only a few days after having run into Sid, Zygor, and Bones.

Stepping forward, Weevil spoke, his tone belying nothing of what he felt. "Hello, Yuugi. We've come to pay you a visit, and the first thing you do is ask us what we're doing here? How rude."

Eyes narrowed, Yuugi said, "We're not exactly on the best of terms, Weevil. You've done some terrible things, and so has Rex. Why should I welcome you here?" He challenged. Bakura moved to the side, not really wanting to become involved in any disagreement between the three.

"Because we've come to pay you back for saving us from Dartz," Rex rejoined. He exchanged a look with Weevil, who turned his nose up with a huff.

The statement was met with disbelief. "You still haven't apologized for everything you did to us under his orders. And you never said you were sorry for throwing my Exodia cards off of the boat to Duelist Kingdom, Weevil. Or for cheating in your duel with Joey by secretly placing that card in his deck. Why should I believe either of you are trying to do something for me, for once?" His gaze did not miss the duel disks strapped onto each of their arms. He waited for their response, expecting them to challenge him to a duel. Arguments like this always ended in a duel for him.

Baring his teeth, Weevil returned, "Oh, but you shouldn't. I'd just as soon throw more of your cards away, Yuugi, if I had the chance." It only confirmed Yuugi's thoughts.

"Neither of us regrets what we did," Rex added.

Yuugi was likely about to start shouting at them, but Bakura hastily stepped in between them. He dropped his grocery bag and put one hand on Yuugi's arm, and held his other hand outward towards Rex and Weevil. "Hey, I thought you came here to discuss something important with Yuugi. If not, then just leave him alone, okay?" He tried to sound authoritative, although; it didn't appear to work as Yuugi was now shooting him a displeased look, and Weevil and Rex just seemed amused.

Shaking his head, Yuugi sought out a different tactic and tried to reason with them instead. "Well, anyway, it wasn't me who saved you. It was all the Pharaoh's doing, really."

"Yeah," Rex replied, "but since he isn't here anymore, we thought we'd talk to you."

Yuugi continued to stare at them both for a while, and then he sighed, "Okay, fine. Let me hear it. What did you want to say?"

It was Weevil who decided to tell him. "We just have a little warning for you. There's some man wandering around the city calling himself Dr. Yoshida. We just thought you might be interested in knowing what he said to us."

Yuugi gasped in astonishment. "You ran into Dr. Yoshida? What? When? Where?" He asked urgently.

Weevil blinked a little, unsure as to why Yuugi was suddenly so interested (or as to how he knew the man, for that matter), but not really caring either way. "An hour or so ago, I guess. It was downtown by all the dueling shops. We were challenged to a duel, because he said he wanted to test out his new deck—"

"A _duel_? Are you hurt? Did anything happen?" Yuugi's anger at them had all but disappeared. His face was now lined with anxiety and concern. Seeing this, Bakura finally pulled away. He was mystified as to what was going on but was sure that they weren't going to try and hurt each other any more, at least.

Just as perplexed as Bakura was, Weevil questioned, "What are you talking about? Of course not."

"Kaiba's holograms were just as realistic as ever, though," Rex chimed in, "a Gray Wing completely knocked Weevil over. Man, that must have hurt."

Turning around, Weevil shot back, "At least I wasn't nearly burnt from an easily preventable trap card."

Rex glared. Yuugi was quick to speak so that the two couldn't start arguing. "What did Dr. Yoshida say that you wanted me to know about?" He questioned them.

Shrugging, Rex answered him, "He said he was coming after you. And there was something else, too. He had that gold rod, like Marik had during the Battle City Tournament, didn't he? I saw the guy with it on TV once. You think he stole it?" These were questions he shot at Weevil.

"Oh, I don't know. Probably. He had an insane look on his face, anyway. Very angry at something or other. You better watch out, Yuugi," Weevil scoffed with a chortle. He turned and started to stalk away. "Come on, Rex, let's get out of here. I've had enough of this. It's bad enough that we're seeing Yuugi in person. Later we'll see all those duel commercials and his face will be all over the TV screen."

Rex followed Weevil out of the store. "No kidding. And Yuugi? Consider us even for that little tidbit of information,"

The bell jingled as the door clicked shut. Bakura had a worried expression on his face. His friend, Yuugi, did not seem to be totally aware of what was happening. He looked distant: staring off into some unknown space where Bakura could not follow him. "The Rod..." Yuugi murmured to himself.

Bakura hung back for a moment, before reaching forward and shaking his shoulder slightly. "Yuugi? You can't believe that, can you? The Items are long gone. It doesn't make any sense, you see? Yuugi?"

Lifting his head up, and blinking as if he had been brought out of a stupor, Yuugi breathed out. Bakura removed his hand. "Um...Bakura. Some strange things have been happening recently, things that you're unaware of. It's...difficult to explain..."

The phone rang shrilly.

Casting another glance at Bakura, Yuugi walked over behind the counter to answer it. "Hello, Game Shop..." he said wearily.

A deep baritone came through the receiver to his ear. "It's me."

Yuugi jumped a little at the unexpected voice that came through the phone. "Kaiba! I'm surprised to hear from you. How are you?"

There was an amused chuckle that sounded through the line. "Always so polite, aren't you? But we have no time for such pleasantries. I've located the hotel that Dr. Yoshida is staying at." Kaiba stated.

Yuugi gripped the phone a little tighter in his hand. "Shall we meet somewhere and go check it out, then?" He queried around the lump in his throat.

"Agreed. How about the square in front of the clock downtown?" He sounded so calm and collected, as though they were discussing meeting for a cup of coffee. But of course the businessman would never do such a thing.

Yuugi paused to think about it. "Oh, where you launched the start of your tournament, right?"

"That's correct."

"Sounds good. I'll be there in about half an hour, okay?" Yuugi waited for a reply, but instead all he heard was a click, and then the dial tone. Of course Kaiba would just hang up on him like that. He returned the phone to its holder. Bakura was waiting patiently for an explanation.

Yuugi scratched his head nervously and tried to piece together what he wanted to say —and what he should explain. But all he could come up with was: "That was Kaiba. I told him I'd meet him downtown. Do you want to come with me, and I can explain along the way?" Bakura has a right to know what's going on, after all, Yuugi thought. He wouldn't leave his friend in the dark.

Bakura looked down at the bag of groceries he'd left on the floor. "Well," he began, stooping to pick up the bag, "that's sounds okay. I don't really have anything better to do today, anyway." He agreed.

"Ah, then leave that here. Don't worry, we'll come back afterward and get it, okay?" Yuugi motioned to the bag Bakura was holding.

"Okay." He looked around for a moment, then walked behind the counter to place it in a corner. That way it could be hidden from potential customers. "I haven't seen Kaiba in a while. It would be nice to know how he's been doing," Bakura said thoughtfully, "but then I'm guessing he probably doesn't feel the same, huh? Well, he might not even remember me at all." He laughed a little.

Smiling a bit in turn, Yuugi briefly ducked into the living room to retrieve his bag (which held his dueling disk), although he wasn't sure if he would need it. As an afterthought, he grabbed a decent sized sweatshirt and pulled the hood over his head. Bakura laughed as he returned, not quite used to seeing his friend in his half-hearted disguise. "It's only the hair that allows people to recognize you, isn't it?" Bakura joked. Yuugi slung his bag over his shoulder and pretended to look offended.

"No, it's my face, too," he replied easily, "come on, let's go."

And they headed out the door.

xXx

The clock struck eleven, and began to sound a bell, eleven times. It was not a very loud noise, and so the chatter of the crowds moving through the streets easily overrode it. But there was one certain individual who was paying close attention to the ringing, sitting down on a bench and eyeing the second hand of the clock. In fact, he would be double-checking the time against his own wristwatch, if he was not currently being bothered by a group of dueling enthusiasts who all wanted his autograph.

"Please, make it out to my sister? She'll be so excited!" Chirped one young girl, holding out a pad of paper and a pen in front of his face hopefully.

He considered the matter, before deciding that there was no point in denying the girl her wish. It would take only a moment of his time, after all. And he did have a little time to waste, since the person whom he was waiting for was still not here (that person was late by approximately forty-five seconds now). "What's your sister's name?" He asked, taking the pad and the pen from her hands.

She hopped a little on her feet, delighted. "Hannah!" He began writing, a slightly bored expression on his face. The girl did not seem to notice. "Oh my gosh, I can't believe you're really here, sitting right where you started your tournament. I mean, you're Seto Kaiba! It's just that I've never seen you except on TV. This is so surreal!" She squealed.

Kaiba ignored the flashing in his eyes as some of the members of the crowd started to take out their cell phones and snap pictures. He handed the girl back her pen and pad of paper. "Normally I take a limousine around the city, but it was such a nice day out that I thought I might walk." He said smoothly. His mouth twitched a little at the corners, hinting at the beginnings of a smile. He was so used to dealing with the press and the paparazzi —this was a nicer side to his popularity that he hadn't quite expected. The girl was amusing, to say the least.

Others of the group started to come forward to ask him for his autograph as well, but Kaiba had already had enough (besides that, he had seen a specific individual across the square, dressed all in his usual black leather and silver jewellery). "If you would excuse me," Kaiba rose to his feet, reaching down to grab hold of the handle of a silver briefcase, "I have some business to attend to." The crowd parted for him, though they continued to plead for his signature or another picture as he walked away.

Kaiba reached the other side of the square and paused in front of the person that he had been waiting for. "You're late," he informed him, "and besides that, what are you wearing? If you're going to attempt a disguise, at the very least pull on a pair of blue jeans. Or perhaps maybe discard some of your bracelets. And the choker, I think." One eyebrow was raised critically, but Kaiba's voice suggested only that he was teasing, nothing more.

Reaching up to raise the hood a little in order to see him better, Yuugi responded dryly. "It seems everyone thinks I do a poor job at this disguise thing. Yet no one seems to have noticed me yet," he lifted his chin stubbornly.

Another man interrupted. "Well, someone is going to start putting the pieces together soon, you guys. Your group of fans is coming this way, Kaiba. And I think they're all wondering who you're talking to." Kaiba turned a bit to the side, looking over Yuugi's shoulder to the speaker, who he hadn't even realized had been standing there.

"Ah," he thought aloud, searching his memory for a person with white hair and brown eyes, "Bakura, I do believe. Part of that geek squad of Yuugi's." Bakura sighed wearily. Yuugi twisted his mouth a little, his expression a cross between annoyance and acceptance. Kaiba was a man very set in his ways of thinking, and it would probably just be a waste of breath to try and explain to him everything that Bakura meant to him as a friend. In Kaiba's eyes, they would probably always be beneath him.

"You're right, though, Bakura," Yuugi laughed uncomfortably, "I think everyone's starting to catch on. Kaiba, will you lead the way...?"

Kaiba nodded. He was not incredibly concerned about who Yuugi brought along with them, and decided not to make any comment about it. "Follow me." They left the square in a hurry, leaving people pointing and whispering to each other. Walking quickly, pausing only at crosswalks, the three left the streets lined with dueling shops and game stores in favour of the streets lined with office buildings and high-rise apartments.

"Is it far from here?" Yuugi asked.

"A few more blocks." Kaiba returned.

After a while longer of walking in silence, the three came to a hotel. The noise in this section of the city was quite unlike the noise in the gaming district: engines and horns echoed around the buildings, rather than loud chatter and duel explosions. Ever since the Battle City Tournament, the streets in the gaming district had become crowded with more people than vehicles, making it more welcoming to shoppers and duelists alike. But here, not too far away, men and women stalked down the sidewalk in business suits and taxis frequently passed them on the road. Bakura and Yuugi did not really know this part of the city very well, and were a little uncomfortable in the formal atmosphere. Kaiba seemed right at home.

Shedding the warm glow of the sun, the three pushed through the large doors into the central lobby of the hotel. A blast of air-conditioned air hit them as they entered. Harsh white lighting made them blink while they waited for their eyes to adjust. It was a wide, open, circular space. A row of desks lined one wall, and a row of elevators lined the wall opposite it. There was another set of doors right across from where they stood (judging by the sound of dishes clattering and general conversation, it probably led into the dining room).

"Wait here a moment," Kaiba suggested. He strode up to the lobby desks and talked for a minute with one of the receptionists. Yuugi and Bakura couldn't help but wonder secretly how he was going to manage getting Dr. Yoshida's room number. Surely they would only allow him to call up to his room? And how was that going to help them? They needed to confront the man face to face. Yet some time later Kaiba returned to their side. And he had something even better than the room's number: a silver key was dangling from his index finger. He did not appear smug, but Yuugi and Bakura both frowned regardless.

He led them to the elevators. They entered and Kaiba pushed a button for the third floor. The cold air continued even in the enclosed metal box; Bakura shivered a little, thinking that his light sweater really wasn't thick enough. An old folk song murmured quietly through overhead speakers, which did nothing for the serious mood and only seemed to make fun of their purpose for coming.

A bell dinged as they reached their floor and the doors slid open soundlessly. Kaiba checked the number engraved on the silver key, and then proceeded down the hall at a brisk pace. Yuugi and Bakura followed a little distance behind. The seemed to be the only people in the corridor, and their footsteps sounded loudly, matching the beat of their pounding hearts. Kaiba stopped at a door.

They stood there quietly for a moment. The door was white and glossy, and a little silver plaque rested in the middle, showing the door number. It was strangely clean for a man who had done such dirty deeds. "Uh, you guys," Bakura whispered uncertainly, "after all of these things you've told me that this man has done, Yuugi, it just makes me think that he's an intelligent person. Well, at least that he planned everything out, you know? So—" he was cut off by Kaiba.

"You're implying that any mistakes he could have made, any issues that could have arisen in his plans, he's already thought out? Then you think he's already planned for the possibility of his location being discovered?" He asked sharply.

Bakura didn't speak again, but his rounded eyes were answer enough. Yuugi tried to swallow the lump that had formed in his throat. Kaiba squared his shoulders, and then he jabbed the key into the lock. The door opened with a tiny click.

They didn't know what they were expecting, but the empty hotel room was certainly not it. It was not a large space. They had entered directly into a bedroom. A bed rested against the left wall, with a side table on either side. A dresser stood across from it, with a small television on top of it. There was a little balcony on the other side of the bed, half-covered from their view by some drapes. In the corner of the room past the dresser was another door, which led into the bathroom.

"He's not here," muttered Yuugi unnecessarily. Kaiba shot him an annoyed glance. They all stepped into the room, and shut the door behind them. Dropping his briefcase by the door, Kaiba started to go through the drawers of the dresser. Getting the general idea, Bakura and Yuugi pitched in and began searching through the room as well.

Though the man they had been seeking was not there, all of his possessions were. Clothes lined the drawers of the dresser. There were toiletry items in the bathroom and two pairs of shoes under the bed. Unfortunately, there did not seem to be much in the way of personal effects, merely some necessity items. But then they stumbled upon something useful. Searching through one drawer of a side table, Yuugi uncovered a manila folder. "Hey, what's this?" The other two stopped what they were doing and came over. Yuugi set the folder on the bed and opened it. The first thing that they came upon were blue-coloured detailed maps of Kaiba's virtual pods. Reaching over Yuugi, Kaiba took hold of the sheets of paper and flipped through them. He nodded to himself.

"It's all here," he informed them. Yuugi turned to what was left in the folder: documents describing lists of supplies and supplier information. Beneath was a paper clipped stack of receipts. And then, finally, they found something that they could use. First, there was a photograph. It was night in the picture, but from the light of some streetlights they could see the general shape of a building.

"This must be the warehouse Ishizu saw in her vision," Yuugi breathed.

Kaiba grit his teeth. "That's unimportant. We don't know for certain whether he is actually using that space to build the virtual pods," he said firmly.

Yuugi held the photo closer to his eyes to try and get a better view. He responded without thinking. "It was a vision granted to her through the power of the Millennium Necklace, Kaiba, or so you told me she said. The Necklace's powers are not something to be taken lightly." The taller man sent him an irritated glare, but Yuugi did not bother to look up from the photo and so completely missed it.

"Can you tell the location of the warehouse from the photo?" Bakura questioned.

Yuugi frowned, and squinted a little harder. He sighed. "No. It just looks like a big building on a dark street..." he trailed off.

Kaiba snorted. "You may not be able to tell from the photo, but you can from this." In his fingers were the second piece of useful information, and the last document in the folder. He held it up for them to see. It was a form used to instruct delivery trucks where to send their load of supplies, and it was completely filled out...address, contact information, and all. The young businessman grinned a predatory smile.

"End game."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

He watched her keenly from behind the rim of his paper cup. She sat daintily in a chair two tables in front of him, and one across, her back to him as she chatted with two of her friends. Her laughter was delicate, like the ring of a bell, and it seemed to be quite infectious because now she had both of her friends laughing too. This was not just any woman, no: it was a beautiful one, as could be seen by the numerous male glances in her direction. She had long, shining auburn hair, and big doe eyes peeking out from behind her bangs. Her face was heart-shaped and it held a sweet expression (she was quite innocent and naïve, he could just tell).

Sipping slowly from the cup, he contemplated how to get her alone in someplace quiet. Perhaps if he waited long enough, she would leave her friends in favour of walking down the street she had come through earlier. He hoped so, since it looked to be mostly bereft of people and would do well for what he planned. It was an amazing stroke of luck that he had run into her at all, actually. An interesting coincidence. Now he had the perfect lure (or would have) to bring his enemies into his trap. And all he needed now was the right moment, just the right timing and she would be his...

The woman laughed again, moving one hand up to cover her mouth politely. Her feet were crossed at the ankles underneath her chair, he noticed, and she tended to fold her hands neatly in her lap when she wasn't holding her cup. Would she scream or try to fight him? He highly doubted it.

He glanced away for a moment, eyeing the street and the small groups of people walking down it. It was good that it was not a busy day for shoppers. He needed as few people as possible...so he would have to worry about less witnesses. As he turned his gaze back to watch the woman again, he realized that she was making to leave. Gathering what was left of their morning coffee and pastries, the three girls left the table and started to walk down the street away from the coffee shop. Waiting a little while to be sure that they wouldn't notice, he also gathered his things and left his table, following in their footsteps.

All three of them walked slowly down the street, talking amiably with each other, distracted enough that one of them almost ran into another person walking in the opposite direction. He took careful consideration in making himself seem invisible by pretending to be more interested in his coffee than anything else. They were making it difficult for him to follow, in that he had to be even slower than them in order to stay far behind. Soon it would get to be problematic, if the crowds lessened any more and they realized they were being followed. He dropped the idea and decided to focus on the current situation, instead of the 'what ifs'.

They came to a corner, and to his pleasure, the woman bid her two friends goodbye and turned at the corner while they continued on down the street. He took another slow sip of his drink and hummed a tune under his breath, keeping his gaze upward as he too turned the corner. She was further down the street than he had expected; skipping somewhat and singing aloud a verse or two from a popular pop song, she was approaching another corner just ahead of her. Looking up and down the street they were on, he was excited to find that there was no one that he could see. The buildings were all small businesses, however, and so soon someone was likely to walk out of one of them and find the two of them there —he had better get this over with quickly. The coffee was discarded from his hand.

He picked up his pace and advanced towards her. Humming loudly to herself, she didn't hear him coming until it was already too late. Letting out a muffled cry, she grabbed the hand covering her mouth with both her own and tried to pull it away. "Now listen," he murmured darkly in one ear, "struggle any and I'll make you regret it. Come along nicely, Serenity, and I may just leave you conscious. Do those sound like acceptable terms to you?" He pulled her closer to his body in order to further restrict her movement. Trembling, she tilted her head back in order to get a look at her assailant, and then stared at him with wide eyes. The expression in his own eyes were reflected in hers: a deep need for revenge coupled with horrible experience and knowledge. His patience was rewarded; she nodded slightly in acquiescence. "Good," he purred in satisfaction, "now come with me. And don't make a fuss."

Gripping one of her wrists with one hand, he lead her back up the street. "Who are you?" She whispered meekly, stumbling a little at his quick pace.

Directing a feral grin over his shoulder, he answered. "Dr. Yoshida."

He was surprised at the sudden firmness in her voice, even though her skin still quivered beneath his hand. "My big brother Joey will come and rescue me, just you wait." She told him.

His grin only widened in response. "Oh, but that's exactly what I'm hoping for, my dear."

Serenity trailed behind in his black shadow and prayed to whatever gods were listening, that they might lead her brother to her and allow her to come home safe.

And somewhere in a different world so distant from her own, three gods of Egypt heard her plea.

And prepared to send an answer.

xXx

In a small, cozy living room of a certain Game Shop, there were crowded a number of people currently having an argument. One was called Seto Kaiba —he stood the tallest out of all of them, and he used this height to his advantage in trying to intimidate the others into agreeing with him. The second person, who was not easily intimidated, was busy trying to make Kaiba back down by shouting directly into his face. His name was Joey Wheeler. There stood behind Joey two of his friends. One was Téa Gardner, a stubborn woman who was trying to get Joey to calm down. The other was Tristan Taylor, who was busy egging Joey on. A little distance away were the more calm members of the gathering: Yuugi Mutou, and Ryou Bakura. These two sat on the couch in stressed silence, both unsure of how to rectify the situation.

"It'd be much easier if we just stormed the warehouse now. The quicker we get at him, the sooner this crazy stuff will be over with! It's for the good of your company, Kaiba, or did ya forget that?" Joey snapped.

"This is how you'll get yourself killed one day, Wheeler. If you continue to think with such ridiculous reasoning, soon no one will listen to anything you have to say at all. If we go in without a plan, we're sure to get blindsided with something we hadn't expected! This situation requires some critical thinking. And don't you _dare _tell me I've forgotten about the welfare of my company, ever! You know nothing of how hard I've worked to keep the Kaiba Corporation intact and in my hands. I've dealt with thieves before...so I think you should let me decide how to handle this," Kaiba retorted hotly. His voice was not as loud as Joey's, but it was no less sharp.

"Oh, so now we have no say in figuring out how to stop the guy?" Tristan shot at him.

Joey was very nearly pulling his hair out in frustration. "It's just like you to disregard everybody else's opinion, you know that? He has a Millennium Item! So now we're all involved, whether you like it or not. We're the only ones who really know about the power of these things. So we're definitely going to help bring this guy down, and you've just got to deal with that, okay?"

Téa put one hand on his arm. "Joey, calm down! Of course we're going to help. Kaiba wasn't implying that we wouldn't, at all," she tried for a stern tone, but Kaiba's voice easily overpowered hers.

"Not like you geeks will be any help at all, anyway," he sneered down at them.

Joey grabbed a fist full of Kaiba's shirt and growled in his face. "Why you little—"

Yuugi stood up hastily, holding out his hands in an expression of peace. "Guys, I think maybe we should just try to..."

"—rotten corporate scum, you—"

"...I think we all just need to calm down!" Yuugi shouted. Startled a bit, everyone turned to look at the flustered man, totally unused to hearing him yell. Yuugi took a deep breath, preparing to make a speech.

The phone rang.

Yuugi glanced at the door that led into the storefront and gave the group an apologetic look, saying, "Oh, just wait one moment, please. Everyone try and calm down for a second. Just let me answer this." He ducked out of the room and removed the receiver from its holder, hitting the flashing 'talk' button. Lowering his voice slightly, he said, "Hello, this is the Game Shop..."

"Hello, Pharaoh."

Yuugi's heart skipped a beat. For a single moment, all of his past flashed through his mind, and he found his throat choked up a little. And then he realized the problem behind this one statement: he was not the Pharaoh. Who was this person that had used that title so seriously? Who immediately knew his voice, and called him such a thing that he had not had directed to him in years?

"I suppose you're wondering who this is," continued the voice, as if reading his thoughts, "and you're wondering why I've called you such a thing, when you are obviously not him. Because you no longer have the Millennium Puzzle, do you, Yuugi Mutou? The spirit of the Pharaoh is no longer with you. Why is this? How did this come to be? I do not know, and I suppose you will not be interested in telling me, would you?"

The group had filtered into the storefront, wondering what Yuugi was doing (they had not heard his voice since he had answered the phone). Seeing his stricken expression, they stared in confusion and waited for an explanation from him.

"No, I suppose not," mused the man on the other end of the line, "I'll tell you who I am, shall I? This is the man you know as Dr. Yoshida speaking."

Yuugi jerked backwards from the phone in reaction, a little stunned, "Dr. Yoshida?" He cried out, and everyone in the room gasped.

"What is he saying? What does he want? Well?" Kaiba started demanding.

But Yuugi had no time to answer him. He heard a quiet chuckle from the other end of the line and hurriedly put the phone back to his ear. "Ah...the famous Seto Kaiba, if I am guessing correctly. Are all of your friends there with you then Yuugi, listening in? I'll tell you what I want, then. I really think we should meet face to face. And I have the perfect location in mind —you know where."

_He knows we searched his hotel room. _Yuugi reached for and found his voice. "And why should I meet up with you?" He asked thickly.

"Well, because I have something that might be rather important to you. Should you refuse, a young Miss Serenity Wheeler is likely to get hurt. And neither you nor your friend Joey would want that to happen, now would you?" Another low chuckle.

Yuugi fought the rising panic. "Serenity? What have you done with her?"

"Oh, nothing, for now..."

Joey leaped forward and grabbed the phone from Yuugi's hand. "Where the hell is my sister, you monster?" He shrieked into the mouthpiece.

There was a moment's pause, barely a second, but it was almost too much for everyone in the room as they tried to get a grip on the situation suddenly thrust upon them. And then there was an answer for Joey. "Come meet me at the warehouse, as soon as you can. I'll be waiting."

Click.

Joey stared in growing horror at the piece of technology lying so innocently in his palm. The dial tone resonated lowly from it, the only noise now sounding in the Game Shop. Wetting his lips, Yuugi searched for something to say. He reached forward and took the phone from Joey's still hand, hitting the 'off' button to stop the sound. "Joey...we can't know for sure...whether he has your sister," Yuugi whispered encouragingly. He did not know why he felt he had to whisper, but the breaking the silence suddenly seemed like taboo.

Jerking his head up, Joey turned and stared at Yuugi gratefully. "Yeah. Yeah, okay. I'll phone her now, that's what I'll do. Give me the phone, Yuugi. She should be home now anyway." Yuugi passed the phone back to Joey. A slow cold was making its way into his lungs from someplace he could not name, and breathing evenly was becoming a little difficult. Wishing hard that Serenity would pick up the phone, Yuugi and the others waited with baited breath as Joey dialled and placed the phone to his ear.

It was quiet enough to hear the answering machine coming from the phone against Joey's ear. A little angry, or panicked, or maybe both, Joey hung up and dialled again.

There was another beep as the answering machine picked up the call once again. Frustrated, Joey hung up and slammed the phone back into its receiver. "I'll go over there. I've gotta see for myself." He said firmly.

Kaiba grabbed his shoulder and spun him around to face him. "Do that, Wheeler, and you may just be walking right into a trap. He went after your sister for a reason...don't think this is just random coincidence. This man knows you, Joey. And he knows far more than that, too, to be able to predict how we'd respond to this. Don't you see? It's a whole new game now."

Joey slapped his hand away, and his voice rose back up from the quiet murmur it had been before. "Don't tell me what to do about my sister, Kaiba! I'm gonna go an' find out for sure whether she's been kidnapped. Going to her home's the only way to really know, 'cause we can't trust this guy's word. And don't you call this a _game_, Kaiba! This is far more than that, okay? I've got to go see if my sister's at home, see if she's okay. So don't think you can stop me. I can take care of myself," he declared haughtily. Kaiba narrowed his eyes and set his jaw. He did not seem inclined to argue with Joey any longer, and so Joey turned to his friend Tristan. "Come on, let's go." He stalked out of the store.

Tristan started to go after him, and then stopped half-way out the door and gave Yuugi a determined look. "Don't worry, man. I'll look after him. We'll call you as soon as we know for sure, okay?" Yuugi nodded.

"Good luck, Tristan." Téa told him unhappily. He would need it.

Tristan left the store, the door banging closed behind him. Kaiba spoke up again. "Listen, Yuugi, if you continue to let your friend go on doing such reckless things, he's going to get somebody hurt. How do you know you're going to get a call at all? How long would you be prepared to wait for one...before deciding someone might possibly be hurt and going to see for yourself? Have you thought of any of this at all? Have you two thought of this?" He added as an afterthought, giving a stern glance to both Bakura and Téa. They looked a little uncertain, but then Bakura answered in a determined tone.

"You're right, Kaiba. We don't know if they'll come back. But we've got to have faith in our friends. Otherwise, who can we trust? So we've got to believe that they'll call. And that they'll come back." Bakura responded.

Yuugi and Téa looked at him in surprise, and then Yuugi broke into a small smile for the first time in a long while. "You're right, Bakura. How could I have forgotten to have faith? Joey will phone us soon, Kaiba, just you wait."

Kaiba sighed. "You guys go on and keep believing in your 'bonds of friendship', why don't you. I prefer to stick closer to facts." He turned toward the door, having had quite enough of the group for the day. Yuugi, Bakura, and Téa shared a look behind his back. There was no point in arguing with him. "And Yuugi...we still haven't reached a conclusion about what to do about this situation. Call me again when we can have a better more serious discussion. Until then, we should just think about coming up with a plan."

"All right, Kaiba." Yuugi agreed.

He did not answer, and left the Game Shop with no more sound than the bell on the door and the swish of his long white coat. There was a slight relaxation in each of the three people who remained. The situation was still tense, but now more bearable, at least, now that the more hot-headed members of the group had left. Téa broke the silence. "What are we going to do now, you guys? If Joey calls us and tells us for sure that his sister is missing, then you know he's going to want to go after her, regardless of what Kaiba says. Maybe even _because_ of what Kaiba says," she sighed.

Bakura shrugged uncomfortably. "But Kaiba's right in that we have to think about all of this before we really do anything. We don't even know this guy. We just know about things that he's done. I mean, we haven't even seen him in person yet. So how do we know what kind of person he is, really? He could be awfully careful and strategic and we wouldn't even know it. So we'd be walking into that place without knowing what he's capable of."

"But," Yuugi hesitated and then went on with a deep breath, "the longer we leave this guy alone while we try and figure out a plan, the longer he has a chance to come up with something to thwart us with. And he has a better view of all of this than we do, after all...I just mean, it seems like he knows us and can figure us out better than we can him..." he looked to them for reassurance.

Téa only looked back in confusion. "What do you mean by 'it seems like he knows us'? Just because he says he kidnapped Serenity? Wasn't that only an attack against Joey? Well, we don't know _why_ he'd attack Joey like that, but still,"

Yuugi shook his head. "When Kaiba first started asking me what he wanted and what he was saying, Dr. Yoshida recognized his voice and asked if I had all of my friends there with me. It's like he was picturing who was in the room. And then...also..." his voice dropped a little lower, "when I first picked up the phone, he called me...Pharaoh."

Téa's hands went up to her mouth. Bakura blinked in confusion. "But you're not the Pharaoh," he returned.

Yuugi nodded, and they suddenly realized his line of thought. "It's the fact that he called me that at all. That he chose that term specifically. He knows about the Millennium Puzzle. And so I'm guessing he knows about all the other Millennium Items, too."

"Who _is_ this man?" Téa wondered aloud.

Shivering a little, though it was not cold in the Game Shop, Bakura gave them a sad smile. "Well, we had better find out soon."

xXx

It was a full hour after Joey had left the Game Shop that he finally reached his sister's home. Running ahead of Tristan, he pounded up the steps to the front door and fished out his key to quickly open the door. Tristan yelled out his name as he burst inside and began checking every room. "Joey! Slow down, man!" He gasped out between breaths.

Joey didn't respond...he was too busy opening every door and poking his head inside. "Serenity! Serenity!" It was no use, it seemed. There was no answering call from his sister, and every room he had checked so far was empty and apparently unused.

Pounding down the hall in his shoes, Joey grasped the doorknob into his sister's room and flung open the door. His eyes burned strangely: he couldn't remember feeling this helpless in a long time. It was just as he had expected, though he had desperately wished it were not so. His sister's room was empty.

He should have known instantly, when he had first tramped into his sister's house, shouting her name and hearing no response. But somewhere in the back of Joey's mind a little voice murmured 'it's not real if you can't see it'. Part of him had still hoped that she would be here, sitting in her room, possibly listening to some loud music in her earphones and so unable to hear him. But of course his sister never listened to loud music. With his heart hammering against his rib cage far harder than it seemed was strictly necessary, Joey leaned up against the wall and closed his eyes for a moment.

His friend had come up to his side while he was distracted. Now he spoke with sadness and regret. "I'll use the phone in the kitchen in order to get a hold of Yuugi," Tristan suggested, trying to break the anxiety in the air. But it was like a metal cage: his words only served to make it sound out, a hollow ring echoing in his ears. Tristan retreated into the kitchen.

Opening his eyes again, Joey listened with some effort to the conversation Tristan was having with Yuugi. He looked down the hallway into the empty bedroom and looked back towards the kitchen. And then he turned to the bedroom again. It seemed so dry and impersonal without her in it, as though it was not the décor nor the colour patterns that gave life to the room, but rather Serenity herself. Joey came to a decision.

Stomping back down the hall into the kitchen, he wretched the phone out of Tristan's hand while he was in mid-sentence. "Yuugi, I'm going after him. I gotta do this now."

Yuugi stumbled on the other end. "What?"

"My sister's counting on me, Yuugi. I've gotta do something. And I can't wait around while Kaiba discusses this plan and that idea and whatever else he's got in bumbling around in that thick head of his," Joey rushed, "and don't even try and stop me. I can't just sit here, Yuugi. I don't know how I'd face my ma if she came back from her business trip early and found Serenity missing. I'm gonna go and rescue my sister." He finished his sentence loudly, trying to overcome the stammer in his voice with volume alone.

The clock ticked gently on the wall while Joey waited, the second hand making a steady rhythm that he followed with his eyes. Then: "I guess there's only one question left to ask, then." Yuugi said, giving in.

Joey shot a triumphant look at Tristan and spoke into the phone with a greater degree of confidence. "You coming, man?" He asked Yuugi, the volume in his voice having dropped now that he was calmer.

"Yes." Yuugi replied. He wasn't going to ignore the needs of one of his best friends. If Joey really needed to do this, then Yuugi decided to support him all the way.

Joey looked over at Tristan now, who was scratching his head with a sigh and a look of acceptance. Tristan spoke quietly, but firmly.

"Let's hope we can end this."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

They ran through the streets with an ever increasing sense of dread. The sun was now directly overhead, but neither Joey nor Tristan were distracted by the smells of lunch drifting out from the fast food joints they passed. The only human need that chained them down was their aching muscles, pulling and stretching taunt as they pushed themselves to move as quickly as possible. The day had grown warmer, and even the slight weight of their thin jackets was causing them some small bother. Tristan was lucky in that he had no heavy duel disk attached to his arm, but Joey did from having been down at the dueling district earlier, and he complained silently in his head as the metal dug painfully into his skin. You weren't meant to run with them on, apparently.

They passed out of the business district of Domino and finally entered the district that backed onto the wharfs. Here were buildings dedicated more to the storage of supplies; people didn't generally come too far this way and so the streets were relatively empty. It was not a very busy day for cargo ships, perhaps, and so there was nothing to be unloaded or loaded, which also helped to explain the lack of people.

Though neither Joey nor Tristan spent much time down here, they did have a fairly good idea of where they were. The address that Yuugi, Bakura, and Kaiba had found in the hotel room was not on either of them, but Yuugi knew it. So, they planned to meet up with him at someplace they all knew before heading on to find Dr. Yoshida. And they had just the place in mind. It was a place that held a sad, bleak memory, but it was also the only place that they really recalled in this part of Domino and so it was the best fit under the time constraints.

Joey and Tristan finally allowed themselves a break from running as they came into view of the ocean. Their lungs hurt and their sides and legs ached, but neither of them mentioned it out loud. Something terrible could be happening to Serenity at that very moment, and their own petty discomforts could not possibly compare to that. Reaching the end of the street, Tristan bent over and placed his hands on his knees, puffing. Joey shielded his eyes from the harsh glare of the sun and got a good look around. There: a short black figure was weaving its way between dock machinery and was coming towards them. Joey breathed a sigh of relief. It could be none other than Yuugi, of course.

Both managed to get their lungs to stop heaving before Yuugi had reached them. He too looked out of breath, though the flush in his cheeks only stood out more because it happened to compliment the maroon colour of his hair. Yuugi offered them a helpless smile. "I'm sorry if I took long. Did you have to wait here for a while?" He asked between breaths.

Tristan shook his head. "Just got here, man. Take a moment to breathe, we can wait for a little bit."

Yuugi looked at his two friends, their faces covered in a light sheen of sweat, their hair a mess on their heads. He stood straighter. "No, we have to go on. For your sister, Joey." Yuugi glanced out to the ocean, at the deep blue of the waves rocking gently against the docks.

Joey remembered clearly the sister whom had dove into that water, rescuing him from being pulled by an anchor to the seabed below. She had been so brave, having only just removed the bandages that had kept her from seeing at all. And she had used her first glimpse of the world with her new eyesight to save her brother. And he had been the one to allow her to have the surgery in the first place. It was at this very place, this very dock where Joey and Yuugi had forged their friendship anew, strengthening their trust in one another, even when times were at their most difficult.

"Yeah. For Serenity." The duel disk suddenly felt much heavier on his arm, but Joey held out his other hand. Yuugi grasped it with his own. They both grinned.

Tristan interrupted their moment before they got too distracted. "Bakura and Téa didn't bother coming?" He questioned with some degree of confusion.

All of a sudden Yuugi looked quite guilty. His eyes shifted away from Tristan's for a fraction of a second. "I never told them," he explained, "I thought that it would be better this way. I didn't want anybody else to get involved, in case they got hurt. One person is bad enough." His voice faded to a mumble.

Squeezing his shoulder, Tristan gave Yuugi an encouraging smile. "Listen, buddy. We've all helped save the world too many times to count now. We're pretty incredible people, if you think about it. So do you think we're just gonna let this guy do what he wants, huh? I don't think so. We'll go in and save Serenity. And then this guy is definitely getting his butt kicked." He teased.

Yuugi and Joey both stood silently, blinking and thinking it over. Then Joey laughed. "Sounds like a plan to me, Tristan. Let's go." They both nodded in answer. Yuugi took the lead.

Leaving the docks and the ocean behind, they delved further into the rows of numbered warehouses surrounding the wharfs. Some were clearly unkempt and poorly treated, with graffiti covering the doors and the walls. Others were shining with newly-cut metal, properly locked and protected from any ill-doers. All of these were intermixed with each other, suggesting that as old companies ran out of business they eventually sold their land and so the old buildings were torn down and newer ones put back up in their place. Yuugi considered the dark picture in his mind and knew he was looking for an older building, possibly in poor condition.

He counted the numbers of the warehouses that they passed silently in his head. The street they were on was coming to a fork: diagonally left it lead back to the ocean, while right it seemed to reach another street that headed off in another direction. They turned right, and after four more buildings, Yuugi stopped. The photograph matched the image of this building the most. There was the streetlight from the picture, tall but crooked looking. Giant metal doors allowed delivery trucks into the building, but they were closed shut. A smaller side door beside these was probably locked, but it was their best bet. "Well," Yuugi said, but then stopped. There was nothing that needed to be said.

Joey went ahead of them this time, approaching the door boldly and with no caution. Tristan and Yuugi were a little more wary, considering what possible traps could be set up for them behind the door. Their imaginations were strong (after having faced so many unlikely situations, nothing seemed quite impossible in their minds, all considering) and frightening. They tensed, preparing for the worst. Joey grasped the doorknob and twisted. With a slight creak, the door fell open, tapping against the wall gently.

The building was somewhat dark within, although great amounts of sunlight were filtering in through the now open door, as well as through high windows cut into the walls. Walking in, the three friends glanced around the large space. It seemed empty...

"Welcome, Mr. Wheeler. Welcome, Yuugi Mutou and Tristan Taylor." Echoed a rough voice. Overhead lights flashed on, revealing everything.

Startled, they all turned to where the voice was sounding from. In the middle of the room lay a row of virtual pods, with cables and cords attached from their backs to a large electrical box standing against the wall behind. Near this metal box was a desk, with computer equipment piled on it. There was a screen on this desk, angled in their direction so that they could see. Dr. Yoshida's face smiled at them from the screen. "What is the meaning of all of this?" Joey spat at him.

"I've brought you here to show you the fruits of all my labours. Beautiful, aren't they? Kaiba's virtual pods. Are you amazed at how quickly I had them built?" He mocked.

Tristan brought up his fists. "Don't think you can mess with our heads! We know how you built them, you creep. You used the power of the Millennium Rod, the one you stole from the Ishtars! How dare you force innocent people to take part in your evil schemes!" He shouted.

Dr. Yoshida laughed loudly, but it was distorted by the computer and so it ended up being very hollow and mechanical sounding. Tristan couldn't help the shiver that went up his spine. "Ah, yes. The Rod. Without it, I really wouldn't have been able to get as far as I have. No...without it, I wouldn't even be here at all. But don't fear. Those people have been returned to their rightful places. I had no more use for them, you see. They served their purpose."

Speaking before either of his friends had a chance to start shouting at him again, Yuugi asked, "So tell us: why have you really brought us here? What's the purpose behind all of this? You said we should meet face to face, and yet here you are, hiding behind a computer screen. So start explaining. Where's Serenity?" He cried out.

Another computerized chuckle came through the speakers on the desk. "You haven't figured it out yet? I took her with me to the virtual world, Yuugi! And now you have a choice, you see? You can enter the virtual pods I've left for you in the warehouse, and come after her...or you can stay in the real world, and try to find where I've put our bodies. But let me assure you...it's highly improbable you'll find us. Which leaves you with only one option, of course. Come to the virtual world. And try and rescue your dear Serenity."

Joey let out a half-strangled scream. "Yeah, we'll do it! And just you wait! We're gonna make you regret all of this, Dr. Yoshida!" Yuugi and Tristan gave him shocked looks, and Dr. Yoshida let out one last laugh before the screen went dark. They were left listening to the quiet whirr of the machines and their own breathing.

"Joey, I know this is for the good of your sister, but we have to try and think of some other way! We can't just walk into the virtual world like that! Who knows what traps he's laid for us there," Tristan pleaded with his hurting friend.

Spinning around, Joey returned, "I've got no choice, Tristan. I can't just sit here and try and figure out a better plan. I mean, it doesn't seem like we have any options! I won't force you guys to come along...I'll do it by myself if I have to. I know this is totally crazy and dangerous, so I can't ask you guys to put yourselves in danger on my behalf." He explained, a little crestfallen. They realized he expected them to say they wouldn't come with him, and Yuugi rushed to reassure him.

"Of course we'll do anything to help, Joey. You know that —so don't ever think otherwise. And you're right, we really don't have any other options, now that we know he wants us to come to the virtual world. If we leave now...who knows what's happening to Serenity." Yuugi exhaled, finally coming to terms with their situation. There was no way to back out now...not with all that they knew, all that was riding on their compliance with Dr. Yoshida's demands. His worried expression changed to one of determination. They'd all faced tougher challenges before, with much higher stakes. Something good was going to come out of this, he was sure of it. "I'm in, Joey. I'll come with you to the virtual world." Joey gazed at him with unbridled relief and gratefulness. And then they both turned to Tristan.

Considering them for a moment, Tristan shook his head, causing them some surprise. "I can't come with you guys. But not for the reasons you think. I mean, who else is there here who can operate the virtual pod equipment? Remember, I was the one along with Téa who stayed behind when you guys went to rescue Kaiba. I'm the only one here qualified for the job."

Joey and Yuugi blinked in further surprise. Then Joey admitted, "I hadn't even thought about how we were going to get into the virtual world. Okay, Tristan. You operate the equipment. Start it up!" Tristan hurried over to the desk and started to activate a few switches. Shooting out air from beneath, two pods closest to them suddenly lifted their lids. Climbing in with some trepidation, Joey settled into the seat and let his head fall under the piece of technology that covered his eyes. From behind the black glass in front of his eyes, Joey watched Yuugi climb into the adjacent pod, though he was but a dark figure.

"Okay," Tristan came over to Yuugi's pod first, and reached in to press a button by his hand, "just place your dueling deck in here, Yuugi. You might need it in the virtual world." A miniature drawer had opened up, and Yuugi agreed to his statement, sliding his deck out from his duel disk in order to place it in there. Tristan pressed the button again and the drawer slid closed.

"I heard what you said, Tristan. My deck's ready too." Joey informed him. Tristan nodded and went back behind the desk.

"You guys ready?" Tristan called out.

"Yes," they responded together.

"Okay." Flicking on another switch, Tristan watched with some degree of helplessness as the lids of the two pods closed over his friends. He gripped the lever in the middle of the table with both hands and pulled it down. All at once every light on all of the pieces of equipment flashed on, and the pods which held the two duelists began making other whirring sounds. There was a blinking signal on the computer screen —and then the system went silent.

Though there seemed to be no change in the room, looking down at the screen showed that both Yuugi and Joey had successfully entered the virtual world. The one mind remaining in the building contemplated getting a hold of the others.

Kaiba was not going to be happy about this.

xXx

The ground was damp with fresh dew, and the grass tickled his face. Groaning a little, Yuugi opened his eyes and breathed in the pine smells. He sat up. All around him were trees, thick shrubs and brambles. Birds flitted in-between the branches and chirped. Crickets hopped in the grass around him. Glancing down at his arm, Yuugi was calmed to see that his duel disk and deck had managed to make it to the virtual world with him. But where was...?

There was a sound of a branch snapping behind him, and Yuugi quickly got to his feet, turning to face whatever was in the brush. "Joey?" He called out uncertainly.

It was not Joey. Stomping out of the bushes was a creature Yuugi recognized. Half-man and half-horse, the beast heaved a long scythe and sliced sideways, cutting down a branch so that it could step into the clearing. "Mystic Horseman," Yuugi thought aloud, and considered his options. The duel monster snarled at him, and stamped one hoof down, pawing at the ground. It raised the scythe again, causing Yuugi to shut down his train of thoughts and come to a decision. He raised his duel disk and activated it, then drew the top card of his deck. "I summon Celtic Guardian!" Yuugi placed his card onto a monster space.

The warrior leaped from the card in a blaze of white light. Raising a broad sword, Celtic Guardian stared down the Mystic Horseman, who was smart enough to realize that this opponent was maybe too much for it to handle. It started to back away, but it was too late, as just then Yuugi ordered his attack. "Go, strike down the Mystic Horseman!" The elf reacted speedily, faking left, which had the beast move its scythe to block the attack which was not to come from that direction. Celtic Guardian slashed the Mystic Horseman deeply, and it roared in pain before dissipating into nothingness. Yuugi waited for his heartbeat to return to normal.

He exchanged a look with his duel monster, then said aloud, "I'll guess it'll be best if you stay out of the card for now. I don't know what else I'll run into in these woods," he got a nod in return.

They started to walk out of the clearing, with the Celtic Guardian leading, easily cutting a way through the brambles in order to let Yuugi walk without overexerting himself. Yuugi called out as loudly as he could while they walked, cupping his hands over his mouth in order to let the sound carry the farthest. "Joey! Joey, are you out there somewhere? Hello!" He received no answer.

Hearing the sound of rushing water, Yuugi turned in that direction. His monster obeyed his silent command and stepped in front of him to once again slash down all of the forest growth that got in their way. Once at the source of the sound, Celtic Guardian stopped. Yuugi stepped out from behind the elf and stared at the new scene. A large pond was spread out before him, the water lapping up gently against its shores. Beyond the water and surrounding the pond on all sides was more of the forest. Frowning, Yuugi tried to identify the vague feeling he was having. The place seemed so familiar. Now where had he seen this pond before?

The water closest to him made a sudden gurgling sound. The Celtic Guardian levelled his sword and faced the noise. Yuugi raised his duel disk and prepared for the worst.

With an abrupt splash, a monster leapt up from the depths of the pond and landed on the shore. It was vaguely humanoid, and stood taller than the Celtic Guardian. Green scales covered its body, and its hands and feet were webbed. Armour covered its chest and a helmet was fitted tightly over its head. Flexing its claws, the monster made no noise and dug its feet into the ground, bending its knees...it launched itself at the elf. Yuugi cried aloud in surprise. It was so much faster than—!

Celtic Guardian blocked the attack with the broad sword, causing its claws to screech against the metal. Digging into the ground to make a harsh stop before it could fall into the sword, the water monster pushed against the dirt and began to jump out of the way before the elf could retaliate. Celtic Guardian would have none of this, and moved quickly to swing evenly at the monster's head. "Wait, no, stop!" Yuugi shouted, but it was too late. He had the impression that the monster was smirking at the elf from behind that visor. The sword connected with the metal of the helmet with a clang. But quite suddenly a strange force vibrated through the air, and just as the elf pulled the sword away, a black vortex appeared where he had struck.

It all ended in a single moment. The same exact sword which had struck the helmet appeared from the vortex, and stabbed clean through the Guardian's chest. There was a yell of agony, and then a flash of light before the elf disappeared. Yuugi glanced down at the card on his disk to see that the monster space had grown dark, where it had once been lit up by miniature lights. The Guardian would be of no more use to him at the moment, then. He sent the card to the graveyard and drew another. The water monster waited patiently for its next victim. It seemed to have enjoyed the battle, judging by the confident stance it took and the eager clenching of its clawed hands. Yuugi gulped. He knew that monster well, and he was beginning to think that he knew this location, too. This was the same place where he had faced another version of the Deepsea Warrior. This was not Kaiba's game world that he had created years ago, as he had been led to believe. This was Noah's world.

He couldn't pause to consider the matter further as he didn't actually know how long the monster would wait patiently for him to make a move. "I know all your tricks," he informed the warrior, "and I don't intend on falling for them again. So, instead of a monster —here's this!" Slipping the card into a slot in his duel disk, he called out his next move with a triumphant look. The water monster crouched defensively, ready with its ability to send attacks right back at the monster or duelist. Yuugi could feel the force of the invisible vortex slashing through the air. "Go, Trap Hole!" He commanded.

Yuugi hadn't been sure if the trap would work on the monster, since he had never actually used it outside of a duel, but he decided to try it out anyway as a test. Hopefully the rules of dueling still applied to this world, though it seemed as though they did, or did apply so far, at any rate. His Celtic Guardian had beaten the Mystic Horseman whom had less attack points, but had fallen to the Deepsea Warrior's special ability (a bit of a twist on a Deck Master special ability, if he could remember right), after all. Although; there weren't any turns in this battle, and so there certainly weren't any phases which would have existed in those turns. Who knew if the card would take effect or not? Had he played it at an inappropriate time?

No oversized card appeared before him, as he had half-expected. Instead, a dark pit formed right underneath the water warrior, in the space of a moment of time it took for Yuugi to blink. The warrior didn't see it coming. It fell with barely any more noise than it had first appeared with, scrabbling madly at the edges of the pit. But it could get no firm hold on the earth (its claws were made for slashing, he thought, not for climbing), and so it dropped to the bottom of the pit below. Yuugi waited a breath and warily approached the edge of the pit with some degree of curiosity. How deep did it go? He leaned over the edge and got a good look at the monster below, some several meters down, desperately jumping and clawing at the walls of the pit in an effort to get out. Yuugi took another breath and stepped back.

This world was beginning to look far too realistic for his tastes. The Trap Hole had not disappeared like he had thought it would, taking the monster with it. It had remained instead, and even now that monster was still trying to get out. So, even though the trap should have worked on any duel monster with an attack over one thousand, Yuugi concluded that such things would definitely not work on anything with wings. He rolled the thought over in his head and corrected himself. Anything that could climb, actually. The scrabbling noises from the frantic monster could still be heard just beneath him. Suddenly Yuugi glanced down at his disk. He noticed that the slot his Trap Hole occupied was still alit with tiny lights. Could this mean—? If he removed the card the pit would no longer be there? But wait, that would just free the monster. Did this mean that any trap that he lay would immediately become ineffective if he just removed the cards? But what if he needed the card space? How was he going to hold back a group of monsters if he ran out of monster and magic and trap card spaces? He didn't have a Millennium Item like the Rod —he couldn't just summon things with Shadow magic, he needed the duel disk in order to operate. Looking again at the Hole, Yuugi reconsidered his options. Apparently he had more limitations in this world than he had first realized. If he wanted that slot for another card, then he was going to have to remove it once he was safely away from the Deepsea Warrior. And Yuugi did not relish the thought of the monster coming after him. Hopefully it did not harbour any bad feelings towards him. I mean, Yuugi thought wearily, it's just a computer program, right?

He started back into the forest, walking quickly into the undergrowth. Who knew what else was waiting for him in the forest —but it was better than staying put. It was important to keep moving, lest he be caught in some trap. Dr. Yoshida could have nearly anything waiting for him in the virtual world...if he stayed in one place for too long, Yuugi was sure the man would start sending monsters after him. Yuugi wondered where Joey was. Would it be his best bet to go to Noah's castle? That was where Joey had dueled Johnson (as the Judge Man), so perhaps the familiar place would draw his friend to it. At the very least, the towers of the castle would provide a good look out for him.

Back in the real world, Kaiba was probably having a fit after learning they'd left without him. Yuugi didn't know if he'd completely lost his trust. The thought stung him a little. He could imagine the rest of his friends having some sort of conference in order to figure out what to do about them. He hoped that they would hold out and wait for them to come back. Yuugi didn't want anyone else involved. It was bad enough that Serenity was kidnapped, let alone if any of his other friends got in Dr. Yoshida's way and were taken too.

Serenity. She'd been the one to dive in and save Joey, not him. Even after he'd chosen to lose the duel, Joey had still been thrown in danger after he had dove in and unlocked the chain dragging Yuugi to the bottom of the ocean. If it wasn't for Serenity, Joey might not have lived to be here with them today. He had to do something to help.

Wait a minute, Yuugi thought. This is all that's been on my mind since the phone call. Serenity saving her brother when I couldn't. Joey may have been the one to make the first move in asking him to come with him to the warehouse, but if he hadn't, then he was sure he would have gone in alone. Was it too unbelievable to think that maybe Joey wasn't the target of this attack? Was it him? Was it Yuugi that Dr. Yoshida was trying to hurt? Well, Weevil had told him that the man was after him, hadn't he?

Yuugi brought his arm with the duel disk attached closer to his chest. He wished fruitlessly that the Puzzle was still around his neck, that the Pharaoh was still there with him to guide him and lend him his advice. He sure could have used it now. But as the Puzzle was not there, and so neither was the spirit that had once lived within, Yuugi was on his own. Maybe there was someone better qualified for the job, someone who had more courage or more wisdom than him. But now it was only him there. Reordering his thoughts, he scraped up the reserves of determination lying fitfully in his chest. He could do this. He would do this. I've helped saved the world more than once now, Yuugi told himself sternly. I can surely help save it again, even without the Pharaoh's help.

He delved further into the forest.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

They were leaving cars behind them at a terribly fast rate. Vehicles honked their horns loudly as they passed, drivers shaking fists and making rude gestures behind the windows. "We'll make it in time, Marik." Odion tried helplessly to reassure his brother. Marik only made a sound like a low growl and clenched his fingers tighter around the steering wheel.

"What good is the Necklace if we can't even tell anybody about its predictions? This is ridiculous! If that plane hadn't been late—!" Marik fumed.

Odion put a hand on his arm. "This is probably fate, Marik. We'll reach them when we reach them." He soothed, squeezing Marik's arm.

"We should have left the day we made the decision to leave! We should have booked a flight for that very day! But no —we had to take care of last minute issues with that dig! This is just fate laughing at us, isn't it, Odion? Hah, thought your duties with the Items were over, did you? Nope, here's something new. Keep fighting, have fun." If anything, the tension in his arms had only increased. Odion could see the muscles clenching in his neck.

"Marik, listen to me. You need to slow down. If we're caught speeding, it will only delay our arrival to the Game Shop. And this is a rental car, remember, which would only further complicate things. Marik. Breathe for a moment. Brother." He didn't let go of Marik's arm, and continued to keep his voice level. After a second or two, Marik stopped grinding his teeth and let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. The car started to slow down. "Good. Keep listening to me, okay? You know as well as I do that all of this is happening for a reason. The fates are not laughing at us, so stop thinking that, you know it's not true. Nothing terrible is going to happen to either Yuugi or to his friends." Odion said confidently, putting Marik's mind a little more at rest.

"If only we had a cell phone—"

"We'll get one after this," Odion patted his shoulder and pulled his hand away. The car had slowed to a more reasonable speed, and Marik had started to breathe normally, though his knuckles still looked a tad white. Odion sat back in his seat. He was beginning to see why Ishizu had insisted on his being with Marik, and he was glad for it. This disturbance with the Rod was causing Marik to be entirely too moody and prone to his bad temper. Odion knew he had to be there in case his brother needed to be calmed down.

Marik glanced over at him. "This next light, do I turn left or right?"

"Right." Odion responded.

They switched lanes and slowed to a stop at a traffic light. Marik tapped his feet anxiously as he waited for an opening. "What if they're not at the Game Shop? What if they're already in the danger Ishizu suggested to us?"

"Then, we are able to at least find out where they are by asking Yuugi's grandfather." Odion reasoned, shifting in his seat slightly as the car lurched forward into a right turn and picked up some speed.

They let silence reign in the vehicle for the remainder of the drive. After a few more turns, they finally left the more crowded roads and headed into the quieter part of the city. And much to both their relief, they finally saw the Game Shop as they turned another corner. Odion didn't comment as Marik sped up and brought the car to a halt with a slight squeal of the tires. He quickly shut the engine off and flung open the car door, and Odion did the same, rushing with him up to the front door of the store. Marik pulled it open and they entered.

The occupants of the store had heard the car approach and were waiting for them just inside in a dark disquiet. Bakura, Kaiba, his brother, Téa, and Yuugi's grandfather Solomon each considered them. Marik and Odion found a moment to catch their breath.

"You're too late," Kaiba stated coolly to Marik. He ran one slim hand through his hair, and sighed. "Yuugi and Joey have already gone." His expression was hard to read...he seemed a little exasperated, a little anxious, and a little accepting all at once.

"I...we...received a call from my sister when we were switching flights, she..." Marik looked at Odion.

Odion could only look back at the lost expression on his face. He found words to explain the situation to the gathered group. "She had a vision. That Yuugi and Joey and Serenity were surrounded by duel monsters, that they were hurt and trapped in a corner, that they were about to be driven over a cliff...we assumed this was in the virtual world. She told us it hadn't happened yet...but this was some hours ago. We couldn't get a hold of you, Kaiba, and didn't know how to contact anyone else," it sounded like an excuse even to his ears.

Kaiba looked over at Bakura and Téa, who in turn were looking at each other. Téa spoke up. "What happened was...Serenity was kidnapped. Dr. Yoshida phoned the Game Shop and told us to come and get her. We were still debating on whether to do that or not when Joey decided to go it alone, whether we would come with him or not. He phoned here...and Yuugi agreed to go with him into the virtual world to try and get her back. Well, we never actually found out that he went with Joey until Tristan told us over the phone a little while ago. He had apparently told Tristan and Joey that he didn't want to involve anybody else for fear of us getting hurt."

"And Tristan?" Odion broke in, having noticed the absence of that particular group member.

Téa shook her head, knowing what he was about to ask. "Tristan's not in the virtual world with them. He's down at the warehouse, watching the computer screens to make sure their minds are still okay. He said he can reverse the sequence that got them into the virtual world in order to forcibly pull them out if we need to, but Kaiba's not so sure—"

"He knows a little too much about my technology for my liking," Kaiba interjected, "and I don't think he'd let any of them go so easily. It's quite possible that they're stuck in there until he's finished with whatever plans he's got in the works. Or until we can figure out a way to rewrite the program." He explained.

Marik fought the tide of conflicting emotions rising in his chest, and tried to drown out the screaming thoughts in his head with his faith in his gods. He succeeded, but just barely. "Which means...the only way Yuugi, Joey, and Serenity can escape is by beating everything he throws against them," he concluded, looking at each of them in turn in order to see if his interpretation of the situation was right. Judging by the solemn faces, it was. He hesitated a breath. "I'm guessing you've all been having a long debate about whether to go in after them long before we even got here," Marik inferred with a mildly questioning tone.

Solomon decided to join the conversation at this point, surprising all of them. "You guessed right. They argued back and forth before Joey and Yuugi left, and they're still no better at coming to an agreement now. I know I said trust you all to make a good decision, but not doing anything is a decision too, you know, and I'd rather not lose my only grandson and his best friend." He tried to come off as angry, but it was a weak attempt at best and instead he only sounded helpless.

Marik had never known a grandfather, and even if he had, he knew he would have been nothing like the man standing before him. He was a short man, with a wrinkled, world-weary sort of face, and big kind eyes much like Yuugi's. Marik wondered how he had managed to deal with all of the life threatening situations Yuugi and the others had found themselves in over the years. Even now he was coping better than Marik himself —speaking more slowly and with much less stress in his tone of his voice— and had apparently come to terms with the fact that even though these troubles should have been long over with, they weren't. Bearing in mind the responsibility he'd carried with him to Domino, Marik spoke with a faint tone of respect. Here was the man who'd raised the Pharaoh's reincarnation, after all. "We won't lose them. They will return here soon enough, safe and well. The only question that remains is whether we risk ourselves going in after them...or put our faith in fate and wait for them to return."

He had Kaiba's complete and utter attention at his words. "Ah, now I remember why I never did quite like you. You're just like that sister of yours, aren't you? Believing in fate and destiny, and oh, the heart of the cards and whatever other nonsense you can think of. Listen, Ishtar, I'll tell you what we're going to do. We're going to wait here for Yuugi and Joey to come back. Not because of some belief, but because if we went in after them we'd only be setting ourselves up for disaster. Forget your sister's vision. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about walking into whatever trap he's got set up all nice and neat for us where nobody can touch him physically. This is serious. I'd bet a good amount of money that he'd be expecting us to make that move. I'm betting that he knew Yuugi and Joey would foolishly go in after him like that, too." Kaiba let out a sharp breath (almost like a brief flash of the apprehension he was feeling, if Marik ever saw it), and slid his hands into the pockets of his tailored pants. His eyes dared Marik to challenge him. "So we need to play it safe."

Odion said nothing, though Marik knew he wanted to, if he knew anything about his brother. The others standing behind Kaiba seemed like they were waiting for him to make a move, as though they had given up arguing with him and were now looking to him to fight him for them. Marik considered what he wanted. He thought about why he'd come here. And he looked again at Kaiba, with his eyes firm like blue steel. He's not sure of the outcome, Marik realized. Normally he'd just go in and believe in his victory. But this is his computer program, isn't it? Marik thought in confusion. Isn't this the one he built for use as a virtual video game? Shouldn't there be nothing in there that Dr. Yoshida can throw at him to surprise him? If anything, Kaiba should have been comfortable to duel in his own territory (the possible tampering of the world by their enemy aside). Yet in place of where that confidence should have been, instead there was only a strong sense of uneasiness emanating from the young businessman. "There's something you're not telling us, isn't there," he surmised.

Kaiba was just as startled as the rest of them. But then his eyes narrowed. "Quick on the uptake, aren't you." Marik smiled thinly in response.

Téa broke in and grabbed his arm. "What is it? What haven't you been telling us?"

Glancing down at her in irritation, Kaiba pointedly uncurled her fingers from his arm. She backed away, but still looked determined, though nobody was really sure what she might do if he decided not to tell her. "All right," he sighed, and his gaze flickered onto Mokuba for a second, who was giving him a worried expression, "this virtual world that they're in is not the one which everybody has been assuming it is. This is not the virtual world I created some time ago during the Duelist Kingdom tournament and finished shortly after. This isn't the game world where Mai, Joey, Yuugi, myself, and Mokuba entered. It is similar only in the basics of its programming. But other than that, it's completely different."

Everyone looked at each other. Marik drew a blank. "I don't understand," he began, "so far as I know, there are no other virtual worlds, not any that you've created...oh..." his voice trailed off into silence.

Kaiba nodded in affirmation. "You're right. There are no other worlds that I have created. And actually, there are no other virtual worlds...save for one. It was a world created solely for Gozaburo's son, for his mind to live in while he found a way to restore his body." Téa now no longer had the determined expression on her face, but she did have one of slowly growing fear. The rest of the room was just as disturbed by the news, save for Mokuba, who only scuffed his shoe on the floor with an uncomfortable look on his face. "I'm sure you all remember the incident where we were turned off-course from the finals of the Battle City Tournament. When we entered this particular world."

They did.

"And you didn't consider the fact that this might be important information _because_?" Marik asked, a little aghast at the turn of events.

Scowling, Kaiba took several steps forward and leaned in to snarl in his face. "It was not important at the time. No one had been kidnapped, and when we did find out about that, I made it quite clear with Yuugi that he was not to go into the virtual world without us further discussing some sort of plan. I would have informed them if they had told me about what they were doing! Are you suggesting that I withheld this information on purpose? What possible thing could I have gained from that?" He snapped.

Marik crossed his arms over his chest. "I wasn't suggesting anything," he returned angrily, "I simply think that by failing to inform everyone of this (for whatever reasons you had), you've placed them in grave danger. Because Noah's world is very different from the game world, isn't it? There are no set rules in the world which Joey, Serenity, and Yuugi are in. Wasn't it a world built so that Noah could create his own perfect reality? A world in which anything could be changed —from the colour of the sky to the existence of all the virtual creatures." He gauged Kaiba's reaction: his teeth ground together and his spine straightened visibly. The fact that he was correct in his deductions did not make him feel any better. Rather, they made him feel a lot worse.

Hesitantly, Bakura tugged at Kaiba's sleeve, causing the taller man to look down at him, his expression still hard and cold. "It's not your fault, Kaiba." Bakura offered, and Kaiba said nothing. Bakura drew in some air and turned to Marik. "Do you think we've lost them, then, Marik? That maybe it really is pointless to go in after them, because Dr. Yoshida is possibly controlling the world like Noah did...and predicting their every move?" He fumbled on his words a little, and stared hopefully at Marik. Asking him to say something different. "Do you think they're already captured like Serenity?" He choked out.

They all looked at each other in dread. Odion did not generally give him reassurance in public, but this time he reached out and squeezed Marik's shoulder. The voice that filled the room then was not Marik's, however. It was Mokuba's, who spoke a little tentatively, silently asking his brother's permission with his eyes. "We don't know for sure if he can control the world like Noah could. The world was created for Noah's mind specifically, after all, not for Dr. Yoshida's. That being said, we do know that he built those virtual pods, but we don't know how fast he had them finished. Presumably he had at least one finished before today. He could have been testing the place out before he dragged Serenity there, figuring out how it worked, what it was like. And with that Rod of his...I don't know, maybe he can use it even while he's in the virtual world. Maybe that's how he would be able to manipulate what goes on in there. But then I'm not one to talk; I don't really know a whole lot about the Rod's powers." Mokuba shifted uneasily on his feet and looked down at his shoes.

This had everyone looking at Marik. The Egyptian sighed. "The Rod's main power was the ability to control other people, not technology. But if this world can be as easily changed as I suspect it can be..." Marik shot a look at Kaiba, who did nothing to refute the claim, "...then I think this Dr. Yoshida could use the powers of the Rod and the Shadow Realm to cause it to obey his will. Rewrite who the program responds to, so to speak. And since Noah is no longer in that world—"

"It makes it all the easier to make the program respond to him. Yes, we get it." Kaiba cut him off icily. Marik didn't flinch at the tone in his voice. Had he touched a nerve? "All of this only further adds to the idea that we should not go in after them. We need to find a way to get at him that doesn't involve going head-to-head with that Millennium Rod. Entering the virtual world only puts us at the mercy of all the powers of the Shadow Realm he can —and will— throw at us. It's very possible that everything he tells the program to add to the world are infused with the powers of the Shadow Realm. And while we're no strangers to its strength, and can possibly stand up to those powers for a while, the fact remains that the only way someone has ever been able to beat a Millennium Item is with another." And there are no other Items with which to fight him, Kaiba thought, except the Necklace, which is back in Egypt.

They all debated this in silence.

Then, "So we're to remain here in faith and wait for them to return. But...if they don't...I mean, how long do we keep waiting for...?" Solomon risked asking. He knew he had no say in what they did, and he certainly would be of no use to them in whatever plans they came up with. Yet, knowing this, he still couldn't help the need that he should be doing something, that he should be helping to save his grandson. Looking at the gathered group, Solomon saw in all of them something the average bystander would never be able to. He saw the strength that they'd all acquired over the years, the strength to face up against the impossible and continue to hope for the best. There was the dancer, Téa, determined and willing, always believing in a positive outcome. There was Bakura, quiet and unassuming, his kind and devoted nature hidden in his almond eyes. The Kaiba brothers stood side by side, with their sharp intellect and decisive manner. Odion with his unwavering loyalty and patience. Marik, full of pride, but his cunning and deviousness made him glad the man was on their side. It would be strange to anyone else that they were all here, cooperating with each other to further a common goal. They were each so different, after all. The decision that they'd made (however silently) did not seem like an agreement between friends. It sounded more like a dismissal of the problem...they could not figure out what to do about it, so instead they would stay out of the virtual world for the moment and leave the fate of the three inside to Yuugi and Joey. Such belief. Such confidence. But even as Solomon saw all of this, he also saw the great pain it was giving them, choosing to wait rather than dive in and go after their friends.

This was a group that couldn't be brought down easily. Solomon decided that if they would trust this deeply in Yuugi and Joey, then he could do no less. They would come back. And that's all there was to it.

Téa adjusted the hem of her shirt for a lack of something better to do with her hands. "We need to try and come up with ideas that can take down a man with something as ancient and powerful as a Millennium Item while we're waiting for them. And someone should go down to the warehouse to make sure Tristan knows what he's doing with the controls." She then gave Solomon a smile, though it was forced and did not radiate the happiness it should have. Giving the rest of the group a quick look, she answered, "We'll wait, then, Kaiba. As long as we have to."

Taking her words to heart, they settled down to discuss. Later, when they had exhausted themselves of words, Kaiba would take his car down to the warehouse district to give them a ride back when they came out. In those hours the floor grew scuffed from the heavy pacing of the anxious friends.

The phone did not ring once.

xXx

The door rattled on its hinges, but did not budge, however hard he tried to turn the handle. Groaning in frustration, Joey filled his lungs with virtual air and took off again down the hallway. It was a seemingly endless path, with dozens of turns and even more doors than he would have ever thought possible. Dark oak panelling covered the walls, but the occasional antique suit of armour or sword relic broke up the redundant scenery. An exquisite white marble covered the floor, and so even though Joey tramped down the hall in his sneakers he made barely a sound at all.

A sudden crack of noise like thunder split through the air. Joey sucked in more air and picked up his speed. There: another door on his right. Skidding to a halt, he grabbed the handle and turned it hard. "Please, you stupid...yes!" The door clicked open and he jumped in, slamming it closed behind him and turning the lock. Not like that would stop his pursuers, but still. It was the thought that counted.

Joey took a quick look around the room. It was a large master suite, complete with extravagant hand crafted furniture (a four-poster bed, two side tables, some dressers, a couch, a coffee table, and a wardrobe). For a fraction of a second, Joey thought he'd walked right into a dead-end, and nearly pounded his fist into the wall...and then he realized that there was a rather large window just behind the couch. Good. He strode up to the window, lingering a moment beside the bed as he realized how dusty everything looked. The comforter on the bed looked moth-ridden and old. Funny, Joey thought, I always figured virtual stuff didn't decay or nothin'. A small picture frame on the side table closest to him caught his attention, and he picked it up absently, wiping away the dirt on the glass with his forefinger.

A young boy with turquoise hair stared mockingly back from the photograph.

"What the...Noah?" He muttered, scratching his head. His eyes widened in sudden realization. "Aw, man! I knew this place looked familiar! And here I thought this was Kaiba's game world!" Joey cried out in surprise, and then swore and clapped his hand over his mouth, praying his pursuers hadn't heard his voice.

No such luck. A second thunder crack split through the hall and a noise like feet running came down towards the room he was in. Joey jammed the picture in his pocket without a second thought and jumped up onto the couch, pushing aside the flimsy drapes to access the lock on the window. Sliding it open, he used one foot to kick out the fly screen and then climbed out onto the slanted roof of the building. No sooner than he'd exited the room, the door he had locked previously was blown from its hinges and thrown into the wall, splintering into pieces. Not bothering to get a good look at the scene, Joey kept his eyes forward and ran as fast as he dared along the rooftop away from the room.

Something leapt from the room onto the roof, cracking tiles and causing them to slide off of the building, shattering into pieces down below. Joey jerked slightly from the noise, and lost his footing with a loud curse. He dropped to his hands and knees but managed to keep his balance, saving him from going off of the edge. Rising shakily to his feet, he snuck a peek at the creature roaring behind him. A vicious beast type duel monster that looked much like a lion was quickly padding across the tiles towards him. There was something about cats and how they never lose their balance, Joey thought. He grit his teeth and issued a challenge. "Well, fine, you overgrown house pet! You want a piece of Joey Wheeler so bad? I'll turn you into virtual dust!" He activated his duel disk (which had thankfully made it to the virtual world with him) and drew a couple of cards. For a brief moment he wished Yuugi was there with him: he couldn't for the life of him remember the name of the duel monster he was up against, which would cause some major problems if he guessed wrong on the number of attack points it had.

His situation only grew worse when the second monster that had been pursuing him slithered onto the roof. Joey drew some more cards, just to be sure. He didn't know the name of this monster, either —he only knew what he could see, which was that it looked like a giant green eel with yellow spikes on its head, and when he had first run into it, it had spat lightning at him. Joey could see the electricity crackling along its body as it worked its way across the roof. It was slower than the lion...but it could shoot from a distance, so really they were both a huge threat to him at the moment.

The lion roared again and moved a little faster.

"Ah...ah, um...okay! I summon Kojikocy in attack mode!" He slapped the card down onto a monster space, wishing for the best. Kojikocy appeared in front of him in a flash of white light, blinding Joey somewhat. He shielded his eyes with the duel disk, and when he brought it back down he could see that the lion was now only a few feet away, but being blocked from Joey by his warrior. This duel monster looked perpetually angry, a scowl barely hidden behind a long white beard. He was bare-chested, which allowed his opponents a look at the bulging muscles he sported. Green gauntlets, leg armour over navy pants, and a helmet were all that the warrior wore. In one hand was carried a heavy looking sword.

Joey shifted one more card into his opposite hand in case he needed to activate it. "Right, then. Kojikocy, let's see if you can't beat that mangy cat!" Hefting the sword with a grunt, the warrior dug his feet into the tiles and charged at the lion still loping towards them. Shaking its great mane, the beast side-stepped the charge with ease and swiped out a paw; Kojikocy blocked it with the gauntlet and suffered no damage. But now the lion was settling onto its haunches, gathering its powerful muscles to tackle his warrior. Kojikocy stabbed forward, and the blade barely cut through the thick fur. He raised his sword again...

...but then a shock of lightning zapped forward and latched onto the metal like a second skin, charging down the sword like it was a lightning rod and jolting through the warrior, who yelled in pain. The electricity didn't stop there. It sparked along the tiles and shot through Joey, up his legs, his torso, and into his head. He screamed and fell back, stunned from the blast. The lion also backed off, nearly hopping in its effort to avoid the sparks fizzling through the roof tiles. His head was spinning, and his eyes were having trouble focussing, yet somehow Joey managed to slide a trap card into his duel disk. It took him a few tries, his card missing the slot by inches as Joey fumbled with it. "Go, Blind Destruction," he croaked out.

Kojikocy was no longer lit up by blue lightning, and for a moment he seemed like he might fall over, as he was wavering unsteadily on his feet. He was able to straighten, however, and was soon standing once more with his sword raised protectively in front of Joey. The lion and the eel snarled and hissed respectively, but did not come forward, even though their opponents seemed a little out of it. Joey realized the reason: a single die had magically appeared in front of his disk, hovering in the air as though waiting for him to reach out and grab it. Blinking several times, Joey was glad to see his vision was now mostly clear (he wasn't half-blinded anymore). He double-checked to make sure that neither of his enemies were moving to attack him, and seeing that they were not, he snatched up the die.

"Okay...they don't call me the luck duelist for nothin'! Go! Take down at least one of these guys, come on!" Joey shouted, tossing the die into the air. For several breaths it seemed as if the world had gone silent...the die began its descent to the roof, and tapped down onto some tiles, rolling across the roof towards the enemy duel monsters. They backed up further, as though afraid of the tiny six-sided object.

Joey held his breath and waited as the die rolled to a stop. If it landed on a four, his Kojikocy was done for. The die finally stopped, and then in a single breath it exploded. Fire, smoke, tile shards, and blinding light blasted the area around them. Joey let out a cry and covered his face with his disk; his cry alerted his monster to his concern and Kojikocy drew closer to take the brunt of the damage. Neon green lights shot up from where the die had once been, destroying the roof, which caved in from the blast. And although the beast tried to bolt, the rays of deadly light struck the lion closest to them, cleaving the five star monster in two before it vanished.

Joey was not exactly the smartest duelist or strategist in the dueling world, but he knew an opportunity when he saw one. His trap had destroyed the lion, but not the eel. Before the smoke cleared and the green lights faded down he planned on making a run for it. He returned his unused cards to his deck along with his warrior from his space on the monster field zone, causing him to vanish in front of him. Then, he spun on the spot and took off away from the site, still stumbling a little from the pain of the lightning attack. Joey tried to remember the last time he'd been in the virtual world, and it bothered him that he couldn't recall a pain ever hurting as much as it did at the moment. The world was a little more real than the last time he had been in it. If that lightning attack had continued...he might have blacked out. And then if it had continued after that...? Joey stopped that particular train of thought before it could get any further. Hopefully, the loud noise and blinding lights didn't alert more monsters to come after me, Joey thought. Of course he knew that it was a slim chance that they had not. It didn't stop him from wishing so anyway.

So he ran on, leaving the roof with the eel behind him.

Down, down, below the castle and past rolling hills, past ice floes and caves and a rope bridge across a canyon, a young man with deep violet eyes finally exited a forest. He walked calmly, with certainty, spine straight and hands resting by his sides. He could have been a leader, or maybe a scholar or a teacher. He could have been a hero, or a saviour, or a king. He could have been all of these things, but he was not, not in this moment. The young man exiting the forest was on a mission, searching for two people whom he truly cared about. In this moment, he was nothing more, and nothing less, than a best friend.

The King of Games planned his strategy as he drew closer to the castle.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

The cold metal dug into her wrists with enough pressure that even the slightest motion caused her throbbing pain. Serenity curled her legs closer to her chest and settled into a breathing pattern, determined to keep her head straight and not go into a panic attack. She was trembling noticeably, the temperature in the air being likely below standard room temperature. There wasn't a whole lot that she could see in front of her, aside from the silver bars of her prison cell and the dark burgundy brick of the walls of the dungeon. Closing her eyes, Serenity continued breathing evenly and told herself firmly that her brother was probably already on his way to rescue her. Now, she thought, I've just got to work my way backwards from what I remember in order to figure out where I am. She remembered a man dragging her into a dank and decrepit building, and shoving her into a weird pod, just like one that she had been in when she went into a virtual world with her friends during the Battle City Tournament. And then she had woken up here. Where was here? Was this another virtual world? The prison certainly didn't look like anything like what she'd seen when the man was pulling her half-way around the city. All right, thought Serenity, so it's Noah's world. That's not so bad.

Her eyelids fluttered open at the sound of a door creaking open past her prison cell. Serenity squirmed a little on the hard cot she was on, and dragged herself into a sitting position so that she didn't feel completely helpless. She waited with baited breath as the footsteps drew closer to her cell and finally entered her field of view. It was the man who was her kidnapper.

"Ah, good. You've awakened." He gave her a feral grin.

Serenity jerked her arms towards her chest in a protective gesture, realizing too late that they were still cuffed behind her back. She let out a small cry of pain. This appeared to amuse him. "Oh, go on. Keep struggling. The worse the condition they see you in, the more they'll try to fight to save you, you see? Even if this is only a virtual hurt, a virtual pain, your mind still thinks otherwise. So that's going to make the experiences all the more real, now, isn't it? How are you liking Gozaburo's virtual technology so far, Serenity?" He taunted, tilting his head in mock seriousness.

"You'll never get away with this, Dr. Yoshida. My brother and everyone else will come and save me, just you wait. I'm sure they'll come for me, I just know it!" She told him, her words holding more confidence than she actually felt.

He ignored the statement and drew closer to the silver bars of the cell, causing her to edge further away from him on her cot until she had her back pressed against the brick of the wall. "It's more than just virtual technology that's going to make this experience completely realistic, though. I've added something else to the mix that's going to have an even stronger effect on everyone in this world. Can you guess what that is, Serenity?" The grin was back on his face, and she watched in morbid fascination as his tongue darted out to lick his lower lip. He was enjoying her pain, and she only now just comprehended this. It sent several shivers down her spine, adding to her trembling. "No, I guess not. I'll show you then, shall I?" Dr. Yoshida reached one hand beneath his cloak and drew forth something golden...something ancient...

Though it had no physical presence in the virtual world, the Millennium Rod had a great deal of spiritual presence, and it was real enough to the people hooked up to the virtual pods. Darkness issued forth at Dr. Yoshida's quiet command, and then grey and black and _moving_, breathing shadows spilled through the prison bars and slunk towards Serenity. She yelped at the sight, and then lost her voice at the terrors, the blackish purple _groping_ fingers, the dark red eyes, dripping ooze and shadow blood and moaning and _groaning _in her head...

...the fingers reached up to curl their way around her legs, her arms, her throat, and just as the deep nothingness of the shadows entered her mind, she found her lost voice.

"JOEY!"

xXx

Yuugi wrenched his body around with a start, his pulse spiking. But there was nothing behind him but more ice and snow, and beyond that, the faint edges of the green forest he'd left behind, blurred over the horizon. "I could have sworn I heard Serenity..." he mumbled under his breath, his teeth chattering from the slow freeze that had begun working its way into his bones. With a sigh that fogged the air in front of his face, he turned back around and continued crunching through the snow. His duel disk glowed dimly, a few more magic and trap spaces filled up than before. He had long since removed the Trap Hole, and thankfully the water monster he'd once ensnared in it had not come after him. That was a trap in his graveyard now; Yuugi knew it would be useless to make a hole appear under monsters in this terrain, where the hole would simply go straight through the ice and down to the water beneath. And the water was their domain.

He hoped Joey was okay, wherever he was, since he knew he would probably be facing just as many problems as he had been facing. There was a very small chance that he had managed to end up near where his sister was being held, but it was probably Dr. Yoshida who had chosen their starting points, so Yuugi didn't think it was likely. Yuugi wondered at what the man was planning. The battles he had faced so far had not been too difficult, although he was a little concerned at his dwindling magic and trap field zone. Three spaces were currently alight, signalling that they were in use. Yuugi knew he'd been separated from Joey to make it easier on Dr. Yoshida to harm them, but he still had no idea why the man wanted to even harm them in the first place. They certainly hadn't known Dr. Yoshida before this entire incident...

_"Hello, Pharaoh."_

Yuugi rubbed his arms hard to keep his blood (virtual blood, he chided himself, this wasn't real) moving. He tried to sort out the confusing phone conversation he'd had with the man. Why had he called him Pharaoh? Was he really after the Pharaoh? But he had said on the phone that he knew Yuugi didn't have the Puzzle anymore, and that he knew the Pharaoh wasn't with him. So what was this really all about? It was too confusing to fit all the pieces together...there was so much information wandering around in Yuugi's head, and trying to figure out the situation was hard when he couldn't concentrate on anything but the safety of his two friends. Please, let them be okay, Yuugi prayed. His head snapped up; for a second his teeth stopped chattering. Had he just been pleading with the Egyptian gods? A tiny smile flickered on his face, and then flickered out. I've been believing in fate and destiny for too many years to just give up on that belief now, he thought with a sigh. They'll be okay, because they have to be. That's all there is to it.

Making his way around a deep crack in the ice, Yuugi found he had to halt at the top of a downward slope. Just below him, the ice he had been walking on ended abruptly. The blue-white ocean swirled where the ice ended, swishing against the shore like a contented cat. All around him there was an almost dead silence, but Yuugi wasn't fooled. The little wooden rowboat waiting for him at the bottom of the slope was too perfectly convenient for him to see it as anything but a threat. Yet he had no choice. He had to cross the short span of ocean in order to reach the ice on the other side —where he knew it eventually ended in a more rocky terrain— so that he could continue to head towards Noah's castle. It was not too far from where he was now, and he was sure he would be able to reach it within a short span of time (how long, who knew, time was a difficult thing to measure in this world). Yuugi felt sure that the castle was where he needed to be. It was where Joey was sure to be heading towards. Where Serenity was sure to be.

Rubbing his numb fingers to loosen them up, he started down the slope, his disk raised and his hand hovering on his deck. Two of the traps he might be able to remove, if he needed the space...but the third had been due to a battle not too far away, and Yuugi wasn't sure he wanted to risk it. The black hood on his sweater had been pulled up in an effort to keep his ears warm, but Yuugi pulled it down now, not wanting the edges of the fabric to block his vision. He slid the last few feet, his shoes providing no traction against the slick ice underneath the layer of snow. As he drew closer, he could see that the wooden boat was anchored to the shore by a knot of rope hung loosely over a wooden stake jammed into the ice.

Yuugi pulled the rope off of the stake as he placed one foot into the boat, legs spread apart wide enough for him to keep his balance. With one hand on the shore (though it chilled him deeply to do so) he placed his other foot in and bent over to pick up the oars.

There was a rapid gust of wind, and suddenly the boat took off, skimming the water at a great speed. Yuugi lost his balance and fell over onto the bench in the boat, but quickly regained his senses and scanned the skies for his opponent. There! Two creatures, one like a blue figure made entirely of wind, and the other like a fiery ball of light with a face. He raised his disk and drew some cards. The attack had been unexpected —he had been assuming that it would come from the water, not the skies. Next time he would be more careful. But the duel with this monster (it was one monster, made of two creatures) would not be too tough, Yuugi was sure. He knew the name of the monster he was facing, and really, that was all that he needed in order to win. "Go, Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress 1!" His monster was flying towards the creatures the very moment he had placed the card onto a monster space. Yuugi directed its attack anyway, just to be sure. "Attack Ray & Temperature!" He yelled, and then returned his attention to the more immediate problem he was facing.

His boat was still gliding along at an uncontrollable speed, going in a direction perpendicular to the one he actually needed to be in. Yuugi considered his options. The oars would be of no use; placing them in the water would only snap them away from his hands due to the speed of the boat. He didn't think he had enough arm strength to slow the boat down, anyway. He thought through his deck, and then, he knew exactly what he needed. Please, heart of the cards...he drew, and smiled in relief. "I summon Great White!" He called out.

The shark did not appear in the air in front of him, but rather was instantly in the water, swimming alongside the rowboat, keeping speed easily. "Please, stop this boat!" Yuugi asked of the shark, not entirely sure that the creature could hear him under the water. But the lone dorsal fin raised higher above the water, and Yuugi saw the shark's eyes blink at him before it disappeared underwater completely.

The Great White was a card he had rarely used (perhaps once in his duel against the videotape of Pegasus, now that Yuugi thought about it). But it was a card that had been in the deck given to him by his grandfather, and now he was glad that the water monster was there for him. Though shaped much like a great white shark, the fish had webbed hands, large and heavily muscled. It used these hands now, gripping hold of the boat as it used its tail movement in order to push against the boat in the opposite direction. Finally, the boat began to slow, and then it stopped.

Yuugi raised his head to get a look at his Dragon, who was circling overhead. Ray & Temperature was destroyed, then. His gaze was yanked back to the water when a splash sounded not too far from the boat. Something metallic shone in the daylight —Yuugi ducked.

The arrow missed his head by mere inches, embedding itself into the side of the boat. Heart pounding against his ribcage, Yuugi took a quick glance over the side of the boat and was rewarded with another arrow barely missing his head. But he had gotten what he needed: Red Archery Girl in her shell, firing arrows from some distance away on an ice floe. "Great White, attack the Red Archery Girl!" He shouted from his position crouched under the bench of the rowboat. With a rush of water, the monster shark took off, and the rowboat was left rocking wildly from side to side in its wake. There was another whistle in the air...it flew short, and there was a slight splash as the arrow dropped into the water in front of the boat. Yuugi crawled out from under the bench and righted himself, surveying the situation.

He never got a good look at the battle, because quite suddenly another duel monster raised itself up from the depths of the ocean, having apparently waited until Yuugi sent his shark away. A diversion! A monster known as Octoberser wrapped all of its eight mauve tentacles around the boat, intending on dragging the craft along with the duelist inside to the bottom of the ocean. He needed a new monster, and fast. His Dragon didn't have the required amount of attack points, and regardless its fire blast would knock Yuugi overboard and destroy the boat. Yuugi gazed at the cards in his hand and pocketed them, as they were useless to him at the moment and he needed both hands in order to hold on to the side of the boat. The wood was splintering under the pressure of the tentacles, and the boat started to take on water. Alarmed at the sudden turn of events, Yuugi kept his dueling arm as high above the water as he could. He suspected the virtual water would short circuit the thing.

Octoberser raised the blue, fish half of its body out of the ocean and angled a rather nasty looking spear. Yuugi's eyes widened. The bottom of the boat cracked. Quite suddenly he was treading water, and then the Octoberser abandoned its effort on the boat to wrap all of its tentacles around Yuugi. "Ah!" He screamed. The freezing water combined with the powerful pressure of the tentacles was becoming increasingly unbearable. His shark! Why hadn't his shark returned yet? Yuugi realized with another shock that that particular light was dim on his monster zone. Great White must have been ambushed. No —so what could he do then?

A great roar came from above, as his Dragon watched helplessly as its master was being crushed to the point of his unconsciousness. Yuugi could feel himself start to lose his grip on the reality of the situation...his eyes were sliding closed...

"Winged Dragon...attack...Octo—" Yuugi wheezed with some difficulty.

The wailing Dragon immediately took a dive. Octoberser looked up with a slight jerk, having anticipated this last desperate move from the duelist. It raised its spear and aimed; Winged Dragon adjusted its tail to swerve from side to side in its dive. Although Octoberser had more attack points, if it missed the shot, the Dragon was free to attack from point blank range. Winged Dragon opened its jaws and let out a loud roar, and its neck muscles tensed...

Expecting a fire ball attack but not pausing enough to wonder why the Dragon would risk its duelist master, Octoberser let loose the spear at the Dragon. The yellow handle gleamed in the sunlight, and the Dragon watched it, predicting the path it would take. It curled its wings closer against its body and twisted, flailing its tail up to bat the spear out of the way. Octoberser reeled backwards with fear. It started to untangle its tentacles from the duelist, but it was too late. Winged Dragon slammed into the water monster, knocking it into the depths of the ocean, and its hind legs hastily snagged the arms of its master from the water. Flapping hard now, Winged Dragon shot several fire balls down to the water, hoping to keep the aqua type duel monster at bay while it made a break for it. The heat and smoke from the blast were sure to keep the monster from seeing them as they made their escape.

Yuugi coughed as his lungs readjusted to being able to breathe properly. His vision was returning, but he had a massive headache, and he felt dizzy, as though the world were spinning in far too many circles around him. Blinking, he realized that this was due to the erratic flight of his Dragon, who alternated between climbing higher and twisting in its flight to get a look at its master beneath its wings. Yuugi blinked again as he stared into the monster's large eyes. "Ah...I'm okay, you can sop checking," Yuugi confirmed.

Winged Dragon gave a huff, letting out some smoke from its nostrils. Yuugi cleared his throat again and tested the muscles in his arms and hands to be sure that he hadn't lost any feeling anywhere. He was almost completely frozen, he decided, and if it continued he didn't know how badly his virtual body would be affected. Yuugi found he could not breathe without taking in icy air that burned his lungs in its intensity. Forcing himself to keep moving, he clenched and unclenched his muscles in an effort to reheat them. He abruptly noticed the weight on his leg and let out a yelp, shaking it hard. A blue starfish monster dropped off with a slight sucking sound, and Yuugi's breathing returned to normal again. His arms were terribly sore and were nearly being pulled from their sockets, though, from being held hanging beneath his Dragon from its hind legs. He peered into the distance and saw with relief the white expanse that indicated the ice on the other side of the ocean that he had been trying to cross earlier. "Dr-drop me o-off there..." his teeth were chattering so hard that it was becoming difficult to speak. Yuugi snapped his jaws shut tightly.

His Dragon did not miss the condition its master was in, and so sped up, wings flapping even harder, and it tilted them in such a way so as to try and minimize the wind being blown at Yuugi. Finally, they reached the other side of the ocean and the Winged Dragon settled down to land, dropping Yuugi when he was a couple of meters from the ground. Crying out in pain, Yuugi's hands reached suddenly for his leg, and he curled upon himself in the freezing snow, confused at the stabbing sensation pricking at his leg like a knife. Concerned, his Dragon lowered itself beside Yuugi, and wrapped its wings around him, breathing hot smoke to try and dispel the cold. Yuugi thought that he had better have the monster take him the rest of the way to the castle, as soon as he recovered from being frozen. It would not due to waste any more time getting there. Hopefully there would not be many flying duel monsters ready to attack them from the sky, which was his major concern at the idea. Although he supposed it could not be much worse than the multitude of monsters he encountered on the ground.

After a while Yuugi's teeth stopped chattering and he found his lungs no longer burned from the icy air. He thanked his Dragon quietly, and tentatively pulled up his pant leg, wondering at the pain that had afflicted him earlier. Yuugi looked down in horror at the mottled green, purple, and blue colour his skin had taken, and at the puncture marks in the skin. He realized it was the starfish who had probably done this. I'm infected with some sort of duel monster poison? Yuugi thought with slow growing dread. This wasn't supposed to happen. This wasn't what happened with duel monsters. Duel monsters don't attack duelists —they attack other duel monsters. And for that matter, the virtual world was definitely not supposed to hurt as much as it did. The cold wasn't supposed to feel as real as it did...Yuugi had been surrounded by this ice before, in this very place, many years before, and he could not remember it being this freezing.

Yuugi started to shake as he finally grasped the situation.

This wasn't just a Duel Monsters game anymore. Dr. Yoshida was using the Rod to do this.

This was a Shadow Game.

xXx

Joey dropped with some defeat onto the bench, exhausted and sore. He had been eager to return to searching the castle for his sister or his friend, but the congregate of monsters that seemed to wander the grounds in some sort of eternal watch were keeping him from getting too close. As it was, he was stuck in the one area of the castle not usually explored by the monsters: a bit of a separate building that held a court room. Figuring that Yuugi would think to look for him there, Joey had settled down on one of the spectator benches to wait (in a seat Yuugi had sat in himself years before, no less).

No sooner had he stretched out his legs and closed his eyes did the screaming start. Joey jumped to his feet, spinning on the spot as he listened intently to the very human noise. "Serenity?" Taking off down the aisle, he threw himself at the heavy double doors and burst into the sunshine outside. He'd walked out onto a terrace, a low brick wall surrounding the area, preventing accidental falls over the cliff the courthouse was built upon. The area was empty save for himself...but then the scream came again, causing Joey to turn his attention skyward.

A vicious looking dragon was flying overhead, complete with a knight on its back, all dressed in black armour. Was that...a woman dangling from the dragon's claws? "Serenity!" Joey yelled. He raised his disk and drew a card. Exactly what he needed. "Okay! I summon Red-Eyes Black Dragon!" His favourite duel monster appeared several meters above him, flapping its wings to hover above its master. The appearance of the Black Dragon caught the attention of the knight, and the enemy turned away, speeding up. "Not so fast...Red-Eyes, show them why you're one of the most powerful dragons in the game! Knock that knight from the dragon's back with your Inferno Fire Blast!" Joey shouted, and his Red-Eyes complied, climbing higher and rushing forward. It was faster than the enemy dragon, and it closed the distance between them quickly. When it was only a few wing beats away, Red-Eyes let loose its attack, and a ball of fire ripped through the space between them. The enemy tried to avoid the attack, curling its wings to drop in elevation, but the attack moved too fast for it to respond in time. The armoured knight crumpled and fell from the sky, trailing smoke.

The blast had harmed the knight's mount as well, and it let out a pained cry, back convulsing and body twisting. The woman it had been carrying was released from its claws, and she dropped like lead brick from the sky. Joey swore and yelled out his sister's name, but he need not have been concerned. Red-Eyes settled into a smooth dive and dropped under the woman, and she landed hard on its back.

Joey waited impatiently as his Red-Eyes returned to him. He could see his sister clearly now, and she cried out his name as she drew closer. "Joey, it really is you!" Her face looked half-torn between fear and relief. Landing as carefully as it could, Red-Eyes pressed itself closer to the ground so that Serenity could slide off its back. "Joey!" She cried out, tears pouring down her face.

He raced forward and drew her into his arms. "Serenity! Are you okay?"

She nodded into his shoulder. "I was so scared...but I just knew you would come for me, I knew it!" Her arms tightened around him.

Joey felt his body relax, and all of the tension that he had been feeling was released. "Of course I came for you. I'm your big brother, aren't I?" He tugged her away from him a little, gently, so that he could wipe the tears from her face. "Don't worry, I'll get you outta here. We just gotta find Yuugi now —he came in with me— and then we can leave this place behind, okay?" He gave her a big reassuring smile.

"Unfortunately for you, I can't allow that."

Joey whirled around and moved protectively in front of his sister. His Red-Eyes snarled. Standing across from them near the wall surrounding the terrace was the knight from before. His black armour was partially melted and much of it had fallen off, revealing flimsy brown clothing underneath. The dragon he had been riding on crouched defensively beside him, midnight blue wings raised to block an attack from Joey's dragon, should it come. "Wait a minute...you survived that? What the hell?" Joey stared in confusion at the enemy that should have been destroyed. And since when do duel monsters talk? Joey wondered.

The knight reached one gloved hand up and removed the black helmet. Joey stumbled backward in shock. "Yes...I am Dr. Yoshida. I must admit, Joey, I really didn't expect you to attack me while I was holding your sister captive. I only wanted to lure one of you out, you see, and I didn't think you'd be careless enough to engage me in battle. You're much more stupid than I was led to believe. Or is it that you don't care for her as deeply as I thought you did?"

Having overcome his stunned amazement, Joey responded furiously. "Don't you dare talk to me like that. You're lower than the scum beneath my feet, okay? And now that my sister's back with me, I have nothing restraining me from attacking you with all of my strength. Red-Eyes, Inferno Fire Blast!" Joey commanded.

Red-Eyes arched its neck and spat the molten flame at the horned dragon across from it. Growling, the creature raised its wings to protect its master. The blast hit, flinging the enemy dragon backwards, right through the low brick wall and into the space beyond. The creature disintegrated into nothingness.

Dr. Yoshida removed the last of his melted armour and chuckled at the fuming Joey. "So you've destroyed my dragon. I no longer feel like pretending to be Dark Blade the Dragon Knight, anyway. But I'm not going to tolerate your threats, Joey. This is my virtual world now, you see. There is nothing that you can do to stop me. So say goodbye to your dragon." Reaching under a brown cloak, Dr. Yoshida pulled out the Millennium Rod and pointed it at his Red-Eyes. "Program, remove the Red-Eyes Black Dragon from this world for good."

The Rod glowed brightly, and Joey gasped, spinning around to look at his beloved creature, who was suddenly shimmering like static on a television screen. Red-Eyes let out a mournful sound before it disappeared from their sight. "No," Joey breathed. How was he supposed to fight against the man if he could remove his duel monsters from his sight so easily? How...? Joey shook the thoughts from his head and shouted with a confident tone. "I don't need my duel monsters to defeat you. Eat this!" Running forward, Joey caught the man off-guard as he swung his fist at his head.

Dr. Yoshida stumbled backwards, and the Rod fell from his hands, which he raised to try and block the flurry of punches Joey was quickly issuing. "Joey!" Serenity wailed. Dr. Yoshida caught his next punch, and pushed the younger man back, using the time he had gained to seize the Rod from the ground. "Watch out!" Serenity yelled in fear.

Too late. Joey collapsed to the ground, holding his head in agony. "Get...out o-of...my head..." he groaned, and Dr. Yoshida smirked in anticipation. Joey squeezed his eyes shut and tried to fight the Rod's control. "Ah..."

"Stop right there!"

Letting go of his mind, Dr. Yoshida abruptly turned to face the man intruding on the situation. Yuugi stood gasping and panting in the doorway of the courthouse, leaning heavily on one of the doors. One leg was lifted slightly from the ground, as though it hurt to put pressure on it. His injured appearance did nothing to change his tone, however. "Step away from my friend or I'll make you regret it, Dr. Yoshida." He demanded.

He only lifted his eyebrows in response to Yuugi's outburst. "And how are you going to do that, Yuugi? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like you can barely stand, let alone fight me." Dr. Yoshida taunted.

Yuugi lifted his duel disk and snapped a card down, praying that his disk still worked in the light of the water that had gone through it. "Go, Dark Magician! Attack him!"

Dark Magician appeared in a flash, hovering in the air, much to Yuugi's relief. The deep purple robes quivered slightly at the breeze his appearance had brought forth. Raising a great staff, the Magician attacked. A green light jumped from the head of the staff and jolted towards Dr. Yoshida. He pointed the Rod at the light. "Remove this now!" Instantly, both Yuugi's monster and the magic attack disappeared from sight. Dr. Yoshida moved to point his Rod at Yuugi, only then just realizing that the duelist had moved from the door to his friend's side. He levelled a hard look at both of them. "Don't think that being together is going to help you any. You're completely at my mercy. Because there is nothing in this world that I can't do!" He laughed maniacally.

Putting an arm around his friend, Joey pulled himself to his feet and murmured to Yuugi. "How did you get here so quickly? Never mind, explain that later. Listen, I'm sorry, buddy. It's hopeless...there's nothing we can summon that he can't just send away again with that stupid Rod of his. I think we're done for, man." He started as he got a better look at his friend, at the exhaustion, at the way he was obviously favouring one leg. Yuugi tried to dispel his concern with a smile, but Joey wasn't fooled. "Yuugi...you're in way worse condition than me. The way things are going..."

"We don't have to win, Joey," Yuugi interrupted quietly, his mouth close to Joey's ear. They had to make this conversation quick before Dr. Yoshida got bored. "We just have to distract him for long enough to grab Serenity and escape..."

"I'm growing tired of this. Whatever little plan you're trying to come up with, it's not going to work. You might as well give up now," Dr. Yoshida suggested mildly. The two duelists glared at him.

"Ready, Joey?" Yuugi drew a hand.

Joey did the same, gritting his teeth. "Ready, Yuugi."

They each slapped a card down onto a monster space and ordered their attacks.

One final effort.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

There was something tugging at his mind, though he wasn't totally sure what it was. There had been nothing but inky blackness for as long as he could remember, and now there was something else, and it frightened him. It had been shifting beyond the darkness and doing things, making things out of the darkness, and now it was attacking itself. Or perhaps there was more than one thing, he couldn't quite tell. He could feel the waves of pain, destruction, and reconstruction, filtering down through the blackness to come to him. Well, he wasn't really sure how he could feel these things, he just could. One moment there was something new, something born beyond the darkness, and that would ripple down towards him, and then another larger sensation would tell him that that something had disappeared. Feeling his way through the ink, he tried to reach out and send ripples back, wondering about the pieces of incomplete information being sent to him.

The darkness answered, and for a moment he thought the darkness was not so physical at all, but rather a darkness of his mind. He could feel the information return to him, informing him of the powerful magic that was in the system. System? He thought, and then he found that piece of information, too. Of course. Technology. This world he had forever been in was at heart simply an elaborate program.

He felt forward again and tried to figure out why he was in such a program. He felt...trapped, deep in the recesses of the program, unable to see and hear and _know_ things properly. It kept sending him strange information, strange ideas about scenery and events that he did not understand. He thought that he saw four people, in a haze of numbers and electrical signals, standing on a terrace in some sort of battle with each other (_terrace_, he thought, and the program gave him a definition).

Really, he had never felt so alive before, and the concept was exciting. For such a long time, he had waited in the darkness, sleeping, and nothing had bothered him. Now the darkness was acting out, doing things, responding to someone else, and he found himself awakening to a new level of consciousness he couldn't remember knowing. There was something _out there_, there was something going on, and he had to start moving and do something about it. What? He thought. What should I be doing? The program sent him another wave of information, still hazy behind the numbers he kept seeing. They were important, these numbers, he knew that. This was how he could see what to rearrange in order to change things in the world. But at the moment they were blocking his vision of the scene, and so he worked out in his mind how to sort out the information.

And then, finally, he could _see_.

Two of the people on the terrace were throwing cards down onto little silver machines on their arms, and he felt another ripple as the program added two new creatures to the world. First one, then the other creature appeared, and they looked like something he might know, if he could only remember. These creatures rushed forward and tried to attack a third figure on the terrace, but that person only raised a golden object into the air and called out something. There was a wave of information as the program removed the creatures against its own encoding. This was the magic in the system that the program had told him about. He turned his attention to the forth person on the terrace, a woman, hiding behind the other two. Those three seem so familiar, he thought.

The man with the spiked hair drew several cards from a deck in the metal machine, and began placing more down while the taller individual grabbed the hand of the woman and pulled her further towards the edge of the terrace. More ripples spread through him, and he noted the addition of the group of creatures in front of the man. I know you, he thought. Why do I know you?

Feeling his way forward again, he tried to understand what was going on and why.

Duel monsters, said the program.

Duel monsters? And suddenly he knew the creatures below him; their names, their strengths, and their weaknesses. Dark Magician Girl. Summoned Skull. Black Luster Soldier. Curse of Dragon. But the man couldn't summon all of these in one turn. That's against the rules, he protested.

Raising the object once more, the man demanded the program remove them. But the monsters moved too quickly, and shot forth lighting and magic and fire attacks, and they imploded around him and flung him back, tumbling across the brick floor before coming to a stop. The program now heeded the command he had called beforehand and removed the creatures before they could do any further damage to the man. He was yelling something at the three across from him, who had backed up so far that they were huddled beside the low wall that stopped them from going over the cliff. Sending another ripple to the program, he demanded to know what was being said.

"Savour that small victory while you still can," the man said furiously, picking himself up off of the floor with a pained grunt, his hair smoking and his clothing half torn and burnt. Raising the other hand —the one not holding the gold object— he activated a silver machine on his arm identical to the ones the other two carried. "Because that's the last time you'll ever manage to hurt me! I summon Roaring Ocean Snake! Rabid Horseman! Cyber Saurus!" The three duel monsters appeared in front of him, loudly snarling and growling.

"Not so fast!" Shouted the man with the spiked hair. "Have a taste of my traps! Now—"

"Ah!" The woman who had been standing behind them suddenly reached forward and pressed a knife to the blond-haired man's throat. "What the...what are you doing?" He choked out in horror.

"Don't think of activating any of those traps, or my brother is going to have a little _accident_," sneered the woman threateningly.

The man with the spiked hair gave her a stunned expression. Then he snapped at the man across from them, "You! You took control of her with the Rod! How dare you!"

He got a laugh in return. "Why not? She's the perfect assailant, wouldn't you agree? So innocent and helpless, I thought that neither of you would suspect that she'd be under my control." Another laugh.

"Release her, now! This is our fight...don't involve a bystander! If it's me that you're after, then let's keep the fight between us, Dr. Yoshida,"

Twirling the golden object in one hand, he shook his head in amusement. "I can't resist the irony, I'm afraid. She was the one who ruined my plans at destroying the two of you and your friendship. So it's only fair that it gets to be her that ruins you now, you see?"

This obviously confused and startled the two men. "What are you talking about," the blond one yelled at him, while keeping one eye on the woman with the knife.

He abruptly stopped twirling the object and screamed at both of them, having lost all of his composure. "Haven't you figured it out yet, Yuugi, Joey? I was there at the duel on the pier! I was the one who took control of Joey's mind! I was the one who ordered all of his attacks! It was me who had Téa taken hostage! It was me who nearly got the Egyptian god card back, but for you, Joey, and that woman! You just had to break free of the Rod's control and dive in to save Yuugi, didn't you? I was going to have you take back the god card! And then she dived in after you! So it had to be her, you see? She had to be the one that I took captive, because she was the one who saved you, Joey," his face was livid, flushed red from his rant.

Yuugi and Joey's eyes widened. "You..." Yuugi stammered, shocked, "_Marik_?"

The man let out a forced laugh. "Not quite. His darker half, Yuugi, the one you sent to the Shadow Realm. The one you and the _Pharaoh_ sent to the Shadows! Remember me now? The majority of my soul was ripped away from me, sent to that place, and devoured by the Shadows. _Remember me now_?"

Joey and Yuugi stood frozen in place from shock, but Joey managed a few words. "But how, then...if you're in the Shadow Realm...how can you be here...at the same time...?" He gasped out.

He shook his head vigorously, his voice taking on a distinctly malicious tone. "I am only here. I thought it all through beforehand, you know. I thought about what would happen if I lost. My other half had already begun to doubt my actions, to doubt _our_ actions, and I began to distrust him. So I took a piece of my soul and had it put into the Rod, for insurance. And then when you sent me to the Shadow Realm, I was forced to wait in the Rod, bide my time and regain my strength from having lost most of my soul to the Shadows. Oh, and then for such a long while there was nobody near the Rod that I could take control of. But finally...after such a long time! The Rod was found by a group of people on an expedition. So I took control of this one," he pounded one hand into his chest, "a weak soul indeed, but the body does nicely for my purposes. I'm going to send you to the Shadows, Yuugi, for what you've done to me,"

Yuugi recovered before Joey. "But why go to all of this trouble of stealing Kaiba's virtual technology? Why bother with the virtual world? You have the Rod —why didn't you just force us into a Shadow duel and be done with it?" He demanded. His fingers still clenched the trap cards he held, desperate to use them but not willing to risk his friend's safety. The threat had just sounded so...cold. Absolute.

"Noah had the right idea when he trapped you here, I think. If he hadn't had such weak-minded ideals about proving himself to Gozaburo he would have been able to trap all of you here! Yes, I heard about it. I may not know the details but I know enough. This is the perfect setting for your entry into the Shadow Realm. No chance of escape...no chance of saving yourselves...and should you have some sort of plan to defeat me, I need only to alter this world in order to ruin it. I won't risk another defeat...this way, my victory is inevitable! It's perfect, you see?" He was grinning wildly, eyes twinkling with malice and arms spread out with the Rod pointing directly at them. Clearly he enjoyed explaining all of his twisted thoughts to the both of them.

Backing up closer to Joey, Yuugi glanced at his friend and saw the expression of fear on his face (but he was looking at his assailant, and so he knew Joey was afraid not for himself but for his sister). They were in an incredibly dangerous situation. Dr. Yoshida —no, Yuugi thought, _Dark Marik_— had them trapped by the edge of the cliff, and if they pulled back any further they would be driven over it. Yuugi had no doubt that Dark Marik would sacrifice Serenity in order to send Joey over, too. Or, if it didn't end up being necessary, he might decide at a later date that she was useless and so get rid of her in some other way. It was obvious what would happen if they died in the virtual world, now. Dark Marik had told them himself that he intended to send them to the Shadow Realm. It seemed that this was how he decided it would occur.

If I don't die from the fall I'll die from this poison, Yuugi thought. He could no longer feel his leg; it felt like the entire area was numb, and any pressure he put on it caused no response whatsoever in his virtual nervous system (so that it became terribly difficult to walk since he could not feel whether his foot was on the ground or not). The poison had started working its way up into his abdomen and into his other leg, as well, though he was feeling only the first symptom of stinging pain darting throughout the areas. Joey did not seem to be in nearly as bad of condition as he was, with only blackened clothing and dark bruises covering his arms. And Serenity...a little dirty, but her physical condition was not what was concerning him. With her mind controlled by Dark Marik, Serenity was easily the worst off of all three of them. Can we make a run for it? Yuugi wondered. Can we manage to get away on a flying duel monster before he gets rid of it? Or distract him long enough to bolt...but then Serenity would need to be distracted too...

"Now, my duel monsters...finish them."

The three great monsters slithered and stomped forward quickly. Yuugi stumbled back further, only to hit the low brick wall behind him. He glanced again at Joey, who looked as desperate as he felt.

"Please! Leave my sister out of this! Fine, attack us, but not my sister! Move her outta the way! Come on!" Joey shouted hoarsely. _Not her. I'll die, but just not her. Please._

Dark Marik flicked the Rod in his direction mockingly. "Too late, Joey. But I suppose I'll release her...so that you can have your final moments together." The Rod was flicked again, once.

Serenity dropped the knife with a sudden gasp. "Oh...Joey," she sobbed, and he reached out to hug her closely, "I'm so...I'm so sorry—"

Roaring Ocean Snake reached them first. Towering above them, high enough to reach the roof of the courthouse, it opened its maw and snapped its head forward. Yuugi clenched his eyes shut. Joey buried his sister's face in his chest. Their hearts pounded and their lungs went into overdrive. They waited for the incoming strike. And then...

There was nothing.

There was silence.

They all tentatively raised their heads and opened their eyes, staring in bafflement at where the three duel monsters used to be standing, but where instead there was only empty space. Across from them, Dark Marik blinked dazedly with Dr. Yoshida's eyes and tried to figure out where he'd gone wrong.

Because there standing off to the side, with arms crossed in annoyance, was a young boy. He was clad all in white, pristine and stiff. His hair was a brilliant turquoise, and beneath the sky bangs were ocean eyes, cold and calculating.

"You—" sputtered Dark Marik, angry and startled and confused all at once, "you, you're—"

Noah Kaiba did not waste any breath explaining himself. "Yuugi, Joey, Serenity. We meet again. Listen closely. I've blocked all of his access to the virtual world's inner programming for the moment. But it won't last long. I don't know a whole lot about how he's been able to do it, but somehow he can bypass the central program's codes in order to rewrite what's in the world and what isn't. So use this spare moment while you can and get out of here! I'll hold him off."

They all stared at him, uncomprehending behind the shock that his presence had brought. "Noah," Yuugi cried out, "how are you here? When the virtual world had that breakdown years ago...we all thought you had died along with it!"

Dark Marik raised the Rod and started demanding the program bring back his duel monsters.

Snapping his fingers, Noah had the program create an exit for them. A swirling vortex appeared just beyond the low wall, close enough that a jump would land them in it. For a moment Noah's mask slipped away, and he looked just like a young child, broken and miserable, yet still holding together. "It was you guys," he confessed, "all those years ago I'd managed to escape destruction by hiding within the deepest portions of the virtual world. But that deep into the programming...I essentially lost my mind, and I couldn't remember anything about who or what I was...why I was there. But because you guys entered the world and this man started rewriting the programming, I was able to awaken again and find myself. If you hadn't come here, I'd still be stuck in the central core of this virtual world! Now...I'm free again. So thank-you." And he did look truly grateful.

Waving the Rod again, Dark Marik called out something else, but this time in a language they all were unfamiliar with. The Rod glowed brightly.

What? Thought Noah.

Ancient Egyptian, said the program.

The three duel monsters reappeared in a blast of numbers and electricity. "Destroy them quickly!" Screamed Dark Marik.

"Go, now, escape, forget me!" Screamed Noah, equally as loud, waving his arms in the direction of the vortex behind them.

There was a brief moment of hesitation, in which Roaring Ocean Snake dropped its head down violently and prepared to rip them apart. And then all three of them were leaping over the wall, clenching each other's hands tightly as they fell. They disappeared into the black nothingness of the vortex, and then Noah snapped his fingers again, causing it to vanish. The Snake's mouth closed on empty air.

For a second, the duel monsters stood still, and then Dark Marik removed their cards from his duel disk, causing them to disappear. He turned to Noah, face totally unreadable, and then for the first time in a long while, Noah felt true fear. Noah knew this face —this perfect mask— and he'd learned to recognize it in his father. The slit eyes and clenched jaw denoted fury far better than any harsh words or physical action ever could.

"You do realize," Dark Marik drawled, striding up to the young boy, "that now that you have shown yourself to me, you are at my complete mercy? That there is nothing you can do to fight me and that there is no way of escaping? You're trapped here...this virtual world is yours no longer, and now will obey me over you." He stopped a few feet away, his gaze boring a hole through Noah. Appraising him.

Noah drew himself up a little further, for a moment wishing he could imagine himself in a body that actually suited his age as a bit over twenty years. Something taller. He prided himself on the way he didn't even flinch at the vicious tone the man was using, or back up from the way he spewed out his threats with all the ease of a candy machine. His mind considered the appropriate response. For some reason, Noah thought of his adopted brother (the cynical one, not the other). What would Seto's response have been?

"You're a coward and a thief. I'm going to get you back for taking my technology, you lunatic, just you wait. You're going to regret this," Noah sneered.

Dark Marik lost control and slammed the Rod into Noah's skull, knocking him out.

He stood panting heavily over the young boy's body, muscles flexing in tightly reigned anger. He wanted to hit him again, to keep pounding until the boy understood —he was in control! "AGH!" How could his carefully laid plans have fallen apart so easily? He'd had everything where he'd wanted it! But now they'd escaped with the Wheeler girl! "Hold on..." Dark Marik stopped breathing suddenly. His mouth twitched up in a little smile, and his shoulders dropped as he relaxed. "Ah," he murmured, dropping down to stroke the pale cheek of Noah, "Serenity may have escaped, but I have a new hostage, now, don't I?" And what was even better: Noah couldn't take off to the real world like Serenity had. Noah was trapped due to the complete inability of his mind to reattach itself to his body. So...they'll have to defeat me in this world in order to free him, Dark Marik thought. They can't simply hop in and grab him and escape again. He's stuck here. The slight smile on his face grew. "This may have worked out better than I had originally thought..." he looked down at the Rod and then turned it towards his captive.

The Rod responded to his silent command, directing its darkness towards the mind of the individual in front of him. He frowned at the unexpected resistance: there was a lot of computer programming intertwined with the boy's mind. Pushing harder at those forces, he cut the bonds to the program and finally worked his way into the boy's thoughts.

_Seto. Mokuba._

Dark Marik's smile broadened even further. "You're mine, now, Noah..."

He sighed, then stood up and eased out his aching muscles. "I may be hurting somewhat, but I bet Yuugi's hurting even more," he smirked. Yuugi, who had evidently been infected by a monster's poison. "You'll be sucked into the Shadows slowly, Yuugi, dragging out your pain, bit by bit. And no doctor will ever be able to fix it, you know that, don't you?" Dark Marik looked up into the virtual sky. A flock of doves scattered from a nearby building and flew across his field of vision. Sighing in irritation, he looked over at the unconscious mind slave below him. "You certainly spent a lot of time creating some very useless things, didn't you, Noah Kaiba?" He received no answer, of course. Noah slept peacefully, locked away from his own body, and now locked away from his own virtual world. He had no control over anything now, save for his own pathetic thoughts.

"Well, no matter. I was planning on rewriting quite a lot of the world, anyway. The doves will just be added to the list."

_Seto. Mokuba._

The program floundered, hearing the demands of the dreaming boy, but unable to make any sense of them. It searched its encoding for the mind that had once been connected to it, and discovered nothing. So for a moment the virtual world stuttered, at a loss for who was in control.

And then a new mind connected. The Rod gleamed brightly.

"I am in control now."


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Yuugi jerked forward with a pained cry, head banging against the helmet fitted loosely over it. He was breathing erratically, blood roaring and muscles taunt under his skin. Straining his eyes, he tried to see beyond the black glass of the visor to what was outside the virtual pod. There was a low hiss as the pod's cover lifted, letting in a burst of air. The helmet was pushed away from his head. "Yuugi, Yuugi! You okay, man? How're you feeling? Hey, speak to me!" Yuugi stared blearily at the fuzzy image before him: the sharp spike of brown hair, the angular face, the concerned expression.

"T-Tristan?" Yuugi muttered, trying to get his tongue to move properly. He felt so dizzy...

"Aw, man. This is bad, Joey. What the hell happened in there? I kept trying the system's controls, trying to get you guys outta that world as soon as I saw your bodies' condition going bad, but no matter what I did you guys wouldn't come back. And now Yuugi...I thought it was supposed to be virtual! So why is he in the same condition that he was in inside that world, huh? He should be all better!" Tristan tapped a button under Yuugi's armrest and removed his deck from the drawer that slid out, and then stuffed it in his pocket for safekeeping. He reached an arm around Yuugi's shoulder and Joey quickly moved to help, placing Yuugi's arm around his neck for support as soon as Tristan pulled him out of the pod.

"It wasn't just a virtual world, Tristan. It was a Shadow Game," Joey said darkly.

Tristan's eyes widened. "You mean...oh, man. Did you...did you..." he faltered and stopped.

"I'll explain it all once we get back, okay? I'll tell you and everyone else everything. But for now, we gotta get Yuugi outta here and back home. And for that matter, we gotta find my sister! We got her outta that place, so now she must be wandering around here somewhere." He picked up his pace and Tristan followed, and with Yuugi in-between them they walked out of the warehouse to the car waiting for them. Yuugi was having difficulty walking, seemingly unable to use one leg and the other was causing him some definite pain. Sweat beaded on his forehead and his eyes kept losing focus. His skin was far more pale than it should have been.

"Sorry...for t-the...trouble..." Yuugi said weakly.

Joey gripped his friend a little tighter to give him more support. "Don't you dare apologize, you idiot. You saved my life back there, buddy. And now we're gonna save yours. So try not to exert yourself too much, okay? No speaking. Just rest." Yuugi sighed in response and his head drooped forward. His eyes slid shut.

Tristan shot his friend a concerned look over Yuugi's shoulder. "Shadow magic?" He whispered. Joey nodded. "We'll save him. You can count on that." His tone took on a warmer edge. "Just like you saved your sister, Joey."

The response he got was not the one he'd been hoping for. "It was me who dragged Yuugi into this," Joey's voice cracked, "I'm the one who asked him to come. It was me. I did it."

"Joey—"

"Kaiba was right when he said I'd get someone hurt by rushing into things. Only he thought it'd be me...and it was Yuugi instead."

Between them, Yuugi's breath shortened and he stopped trying to walk altogether. There was a sudden increase in weight as Yuugi slumped forward in their grip, completely unconscious. Both friends could feel the slick icy breath of the Shadows, emanating from the man in-between them and working a way under their skin. Something wet dribbled down from the sky, landing on their heads.

It was raining.

xXx

Her fingers were going numb from the cold; she didn't have any gloves on and she could see her hands turning blue from the abrupt drop in temperature. Shivering, she continued on down the street, her breath forming a fog in front of her face as she walked. The area was unfamiliar to her, and she couldn't be sure if she shouldn't have turned left at that last crossing, or right. Was this place closer to the residential district or closer to the shopping district? She didn't know.

The rain started pouring down even harder, and she crossed her arms over her chest, trapping her hands against her body to try and heat them up a little. Her clothing was almost totally soaked through, and her hair was a mess on her head. She refused to cry (being lost and alone and cold and hungry and tired and scared weren't the most terrible things she could be feeling, she told herself).

Someone jolted past her on the sidewalk, causing her to trip and fall in a puddle. There was no apology, and she pressed her lips together hard to try and keep herself from breaking down. Her knees were stinging now, and looking down revealed a minor scrape on both of them. She dropped her face into her hands. "Oh, I can't take it anymore! What did I do to deserve this? Joey!" She cried.

A harsh rumble of an engine jarred her out of her depressing thoughts, and she raised her head to look at a man on a motorcycle. He tugged his helmet off, and she nearly sobbed in relief. "Serenity! I thought it was you! Thank goodness you're all right!" He held out his hand for her to take.

"Tristan!" Getting up, she rushed over and hugged him tightly. Her face buried into his wet leather jacket. "I'm so glad you're here! I have no idea where I am! I woke up all alone in some decrepit building in one of those pods, and I just got out and starting wandering around, hoping I would eventually figure out where I was. I can't remember how I had ended up there in the first place...it's like some pieces of my memory are missing. And I was so scared...oh, but where is Joey? And Yuugi...is everybody else all right?" She looked up at him, still trembling hard from the cold.

Tristan placed the helmet on her head and motioned for her to climb on behind him, which she did. "Everyone is back at the Game Shop. I offered to look for you while Joey and Yuugi headed back, since I'm the one with a vehicle. Let's get you over there, okay? And here, take my jacket. You're shivering. There you go. I'm sure they'll have some hot chocolate, so we can have that as soon as we get there, okay? Don't worry, Serenity. Everything will be okay." His voice was incredibly reassuring, and she wrapped her arms around his waist and sighed, her shoulders relaxing as the tension was released.

"Everyone's okay, right?" She murmured, a little worried.

He didn't respond for a moment, but instead revved up the engine and spun the motorcycle around, making her hold on a little tighter. "Sort of. We're gonna hurry back there, okay? People need to know that you're all right." With a surge the motorcycle sprang forward, switching lanes and picking up speed. They said nothing more to each other as they headed back to the Game Shop.

Serenity sensed that there was something Tristan didn't want to tell her. She knew something terrible must have happened, and she thought that it was probably far worse than he was letting on.

Perhaps it was because she could still feel the echoes of dark power whispering in her mind, whispering in some ancient language unfamiliar to her.

It might have been ancient Egyptian.

xXx

"Here, take this."

"Thanks."

There was something heavy and soft being placed on his chest, and he felt grateful at the heat that it brought, and it was easing the pain a little. The voices that he had heard did not speak any further, but there was the sound of a chair being scraped against the floor, signifying that at least one of them was still in the room. He tried to figure out who the voices belonged to by memory, but his head was aching and he couldn't think properly. Clenching his fingers, he tested out the strength in his hands and was glad to find that he could still feel every muscle moving in his arms. His eyes slid open.

A dark-skinned man with hieroglyphs covering one half of his face stared down at him. He blinked a couple of times and found his voice. "Odion?" He mumbled. Odion smiled sadly. One of his hands came up and adjusted a cool cloth that he suddenly realized had been placed on his forehead.

"Ah, so you're awake, Yuugi."

This voice came from behind Odion, and Yuugi tilted his head to try and see. The person stepped into his field of view, another dark-skinned man with lavender eyes and brilliant blond hair. "Marik?" Yuugi said in confusion, a note of question in his voice.

"Yeah. We finally got here, but too late, it seems. You made it back alive, but at a great cost. We've been keeping watch over you from the moment Joey brought you back from the warehouse, and your condition doesn't look so good, Yuugi. Even though we're performing a purification ritual to try and rid you of the Shadows running through your veins, it only seems to be holding them back somewhat. I don't know what we can do here to help you. This is powerful magic. This is the Rod's doing, and I know what it's capable of. I'm not sure..." he broke off, and did not seem to want to continue.

"You're not sure if I'll survive," Yuugi muttered pointedly. He understood only too well the danger that he was in. But he was distracted with thoughts of their enemy, and so for the time being he set aside his fears and considered instead the immediate future.

Odion and Marik exchanged a look.

Yuugi used the moment to glance at his surroundings. It was his room, with his desk cleared of its usual clutter to make space for a tray of food and a dish of ice and water. He could smell something spicy, and realized it was due to some incense being burned. There was a white cloth laid on the floor at the foot of his bed, and he could see the edges of it as well as the flame of the candles. Strange symbols were printed on the cloth. This was what they were using to try and purify him, then.

The door opened with a slight click and Kaiba appeared in the doorway. "Yuugi," he greeted.

"Kaiba," Yuugi sighed, "I—"

"Forget it," he interrupted, and then shut his mouth with a snap. His eyes flashed briefly with regret for his harsh tone. Kaiba eyed the two Egyptians hovering over Yuugi's bed, who eyed him back. There was a silent conversation between them, and then suddenly Odion stood and offered Kaiba his chair, which he took. Yuugi waited for the outburst he was sure was to come. "You tell me you'll wait before you do anything, and then you go back on your word," Kaiba began, and Yuugi flinched, "so I'm not able to tell you about the world that you just jumped into. You and Wheeler rush in and get yourselves hurt and finally end up saving his sister, but now look at you. Poisoned. And even this magic mumbo jumbo that the Ishtars are pulling doesn't seem to be working. So now what? You got yourself into this mess. It's completely your fault. Do you have some plan to pull yourself back out? Do you have some last turn half-baked strategy that always manages to bring you out of a tough spot? Well?" His glare seemed empty, and Yuugi didn't know what to make of the quiet tone and hunched posture. This wasn't the man he knew so well. Kaiba seemed...hurt.

Licking his dry lips, Yuugi reached up to pull the cold cloth from his forehead. Odion seemed about to protest, but Marik looked at him and so he said nothing. Breathing in deeply, Yuugi pushed himself up into a sitting position and leaned back into all the pillows that had been piled behind him. He stared at Kaiba. "I'm sorry, Kaiba. I'm sorry that all of this happened. I'm sorry the Rod came back. I'm sorry he came after us and started dragging innocent people into this. And I'm sorry it had to be Serenity, who saved Joey's life once, when I failed. Things were looking very bleak. I thought about all of you, about all of the people I cared about. I kept thinking about what would happen if it was a trap, and if we all decided to go in and then something terrible happened. After I thought about that I decided I couldn't let you guys get involved. I didn't want anyone else to get hurt. I didn't want Joey to go, either, but there was no stopping him. So yeah, we did get hurt. It was a trap. But we managed to get out again. I'm just...I'm glad I'm the one who was seriously injured. Better me than anybody else."

Kaiba hit him. Yuugi started in surprise, staring at Kaiba's raised hand with wide eyes. His cheek was stinging. "You always have to be the saviour, don't you, Yuugi?" he said angrily, "nobody else can handle this guy, is that it? Nobody else cares enough for Serenity and nobody else has the determination and the will to see this thing through to the end,"

Stuttering, Yuugi tried to break in, "No, no, that's not true, that's not what I—"

"The hell that's not what you were thinking! You never had any confidence in your so-called friends, did you? You never believed in facing problems with your friends behind you at all, did you? It was all a lie! You've been a good actor for all these years, Yuugi, I'll grant you that. I've always thought you believed in that power of friendship nonsense," he sneered, fingers curled into fists.

There was a gloomy silence for several breaths. Yuugi looked down at his hands and analysed the cuts and scraps he'd obtained, the dark lines of scars he'd gotten long ago. Long ago, when he'd stood in a burning warehouse putting together a precious puzzle in a desperate attempt to save the life of a dear friend. His hands trembled with his sudden comprehension of the situation. "Oh," he breathed, "what have I done?" He whispered in dismay.

Kaiba pinched the bridge of his nose between two fingers and attempted to regain his icy composure. "Nothing," he replied, "you haven't done anything. Just gone and tried to save the world on your own again, just like usual," a wry smile was making its way up his face, and Yuugi looked up at him, and smiled in gratefulness at his forgiveness.

His smile broke as his current condition dawned on him. I didn't realize it was this bad. I'm starting to lose all feeling in my other leg, Yuugi thought miserably. The Shadows are slowly taking over my entire body. I feel so weak...

Marik stepped forward suddenly and took the damp cloth from the bed, dipping it in the iced water before setting in on Yuugi's forehead again. "Your temperature kept spiking all afternoon as your body tried to deal with the Shadows," he informed Yuugi, "which was why we had all of your extra blankets off earlier. But I think it would be best if we try to keep your temperature down now, even though you've been granted some respite. Rest, and have something to eat. Tell us if you feel any different at all, all right?" He looked concerned, and Yuugi nodded, settling back further against the pillows. Marik reached up and pulled the tray down from the desk, placing it on Yuugi's lap.

He looked down at the platter of food and felt the knot of throbbing pain deep in his abdomen. His stomach might not take the food it was offered, but he thought it would be best to try anyway. A sigh escaped his throat. "What happened to everyone else?" Yuugi asked, picking up the chopsticks.

Sitting down on the edge of his bed, Marik stretched out his legs as he answered him. "Your grandfather's downstairs with Mokuba eating dinner. Serenity went with Téa over to her house; she offered Serenity a place to crash since we think it would be best if everyone mostly stuck together. Joey's over at Tristan's with the same idea. Bakura went for a walk, but he said he'd be back within an hour. We'll go out looking for him if he doesn't come back by then. But don't worry, he said he'd stay within a few blocks."

Swallowing a mouthful of food, Yuugi brought up his next question with some degree of hesitation. "Did Joey tell you guys everything that happened?" Three separate nods. Yuugi was silent for a moment. He didn't know who to look at: Marik had an expression so torn and stormy that he thought he might start shouting from all the stress, while Kaiba simply looked lost. Odion was unreadable. "Are you guys okay?"

Marik's head jerked up and he stared at Yuugi with all the strength and purpose that he could muster. "We thought we destroyed him already. But I guess we failed terribly. Listen, Yuugi. Because I'm the one who created him, because I'm the one who's really behind all of this...I swear to you, I won't stop until he's defeated. I will help bring him down. My darker half. Please forgive me for everything that he's done."

"Of course he forgives you," Kaiba said exasperatedly, "that moron doesn't hold even one particle of bad sentiments in his entire body." Yuugi smiled softly at them both, and Marik relaxed. Kaiba's expression turned sour again. "But even though we got Wheeler's sister back, now that scum has Noah. I won't stand for that. There must be some way that we can defeat him," he rested his chin in one hand as he thought. And then he added in a low tone, "And you still haven't answered my original question, Yuugi. Do you or do you not have some idea of how to handle this?" He motioned at Yuugi's condition.

He winced mentally as he tried to figure out the best way to answer Kaiba's question. At length he decided he could say no less than the truth. "No, Kaiba. I don't."

"...Thought so."

They retreated to their own thoughts in companionable silence. Yuugi took steadying breaths and tried to block out the very real numbing sensation spreading through his body like a slow wave. Marik glanced up at him as he noticed that Yuugi was no longer eating. "Yuugi?" The concerned voice brought him out of his dark thoughts, and he laughed uncomfortably before raising the chopsticks to his mouth once more. Swallowing was difficult; his throat was unaccountably dry. Marik scowled, and looked over at Odion, who was staring at the candles on the floor.

All of the flames had gone out, even though there was still plenty of wax and wick left.

He sharply turned back to Yuugi, who was rubbing his temples with his eyes clenched shut. Marik stood suddenly. "You agreed to tell me if your condition worsened," he said crossly, and moved over to pull the tray off of his lap and put it on the desk.

Opening his eyes, Yuugi laughed again uneasily and forced a smile. "Sorry. I just realized that I had a headache. It's nothing, really, don't worry about it."

Marik stared at him for a long while and then looked over his shoulder at Odion, who was busy relighting the candles and chanting under his breath. Kaiba said nothing, but he considered Yuugi with a calculating eye. Then Marik said, "I may know of a way to heal you. And a way to defeat my darker half." Odion lurched forward and grabbed his arm in warning. Marik gave him a tired look. "I know what you think, Odion, but we have to let them know. So that at least they have a choice of whether to take this path or not. It shouldn't be our decision alone." He said sternly.

Standing up and pushing back his chair, Kaiba regarded Marik. "What is it that you haven't been saying? It's about that phone call that you received a while ago from Ishizu, isn't it? What did she say?" He demanded.

"Well," Marik began, sitting down on the bed again, "it was about the expedition that's still going on. The dig team has managed to uncover the entrance to one of the high priests' tombs. But that's not why she phoned. They've nearly restored the entire Chamber of the Millennium Stone. She said that they've dug down to the floor and are working at carefully putting back together the support pillars that once held up the ceiling. And that's not all. They removed all the dirt and rock at the back of the Chamber and found the Door."

Yuugi sucked in a breath, but Kaiba just snorted. "What does that have to do with anything? So they found the Door to the Afterlife. That's hardly a concern for us. It's not like it opens anymore." He said irritably.

Odion responded slowly. "She said that they found it completely intact. A little odd, don't you think? Most of the Chamber breaks down and the Door remains standing. So then, when the team informed Ishizu of their findings and had her come down to see for herself, she had a vision while standing in front of the Door." This had Kaiba's attention. Yuugi ignored the pounding in his skull and listened intently to what Odion was saying. "She said the Necklace brought her back in time to when the Pharaoh left us, walking through the Door into the golden light. When she snapped out of her vision, she said she thought the Eye of Wdjat on the Door was glowing faintly. And the Necklace, too." He stopped speaking and stared into the space in front of him, lost in a memory.

Kaiba's sarcastic response was not completely unexpected, but it still bothered Marik a little. "Oh, so Ishizu remembers something about the past and calls it a vision. Then she _thinks_ she sees her magic necklace glowing along with some ancient Egyptian door. So she calls one half of her psychotic brother and warns him about it. This is terrible, we have to do something about it!" Kaiba mocked, "can you even hear yourself speak at all? Do you even realize the kind of ridiculous nonsense that comes out of your mouth?" Odion narrowed his eyes and Marik stepped forward angrily. "For that matter, this whole situation is ridiculous. We're fighting some bit of a soul that was supposedly mostly destroyed when a teenager beat you—" Kaiba levelled an amused look at Marik, "—in a card game. And now it's back because it had hid itself in some ancient Egyptian gold _stick_, captured a body, and it's now using it to rampage across Japan and threaten people with duel monsters in a virtual world," he sat down heavily, running both hands through his hair with a heavy sigh, "I hate ancient Egypt."

He had been somewhat worried about Marik and Odion, thinking that they would start yelling at Kaiba for his outburst, but to Yuugi's relief he found that they were both instead just glaring in annoyed silence. He started to laugh at the expression on Kaiba's face, causing them all to look over at him. "Sorry," he apologized, "I couldn't help myself. I guess this whole thing does seem kind of ridiculous. But it can't be helped, you know? And we've faced situations like this before. Maybe you should just...get used to it?" He suggested with a teasing smile.

"I'm glad you can still find something amusing in this whole state of affairs, seeing as how you're poisoned, Yuugi." Kaiba retorted, though there was no venom in his voice.

He winced, bowing his head in admission. Kaiba was right, it was not the time to be joking. "How is it that you think this information will help us, Marik?" Yuugi enquired wearily. The pounding in his head abated as he slid down to lay more comfortably in his bed.

Turning away from Kaiba, Marik hesitated a second before talking. "I think the Necklace was trying to tell us something. I think that maybe the Door is awaiting us, awaiting to be reopened. Because maybe we can't do this alone, Yuugi. Kaiba's right, only one Millennium Item can beat another. Ishizu is waiting for us in Egypt; she has the Item we need. But there's one last element that we can add to ensure our victory, don't you think? Because it wasn't you who beat my darker half before, was it?"

The silence was so profound that Yuugi could almost hear their hearts beating as well as his own. Kaiba was absolutely stunned. "You...what..." he gasped out.

Marik nodded. "I think we can bring him back,"

Yuugi jerked up, groaning a bit from the stab of pain that lanced through his abdomen. His voice was barely a croak, but Marik heard it well enough. "You really think the Door will open again...?" Yuugi said in shock, his head spinning from the sudden information it was being presented. Marik looked at Odion, and then they both nodded. "But...even so...even if it's possible...we can't! The Other Me is happy and doing really well in the Afterlife, I'm sure of it! We can't disrupt that, we can't bother him with our problems when he was finally able to obtain peace! He 'put down his sword', remember? He can't fight anymore," Yuugi cried out, distressed.

"Yuugi...with your skills as a duelist, you may have been the only one that could defeat him in a Shadow Game. But now that you're like this...and with Noah as his captive...we're at a severe disadvantage. And if we can bring the Pharaoh back to help us, well, it'll save your life, Yuugi. If he is defeated I'm sure the Shadows will dissipate from your body, since he was the source. Of course it is your decision. I think the Pharaoh would be able to return to the Afterlife once his business was finished here, if that eases your mind any," Marik explained. He could see the pain this information was causing him, and he put his hands on either of Yuugi's shoulders and pushed him gently back down. "You're causing yourself more pain. Just relax," he said soothingly.

Covering his eyes with his hands to avoid their gazes, Yuugi took several deep breaths. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Bring the Pharaoh back? Something deep within him felt like it was being squeezed uncomfortably, and he pushed aside the sudden yearning to see his best friend. The Pharaoh's happiness was the most important thing. "We can't..." he whispered, "we can't disturb his happiness," he was grabbed roughly by the front of his shirt and pulled forward suddenly. Yuugi stared in surprise at the angry ocean eyes that belonged to Kaiba.

"Even if it means you'll die, Yuugi?" He murmured lowly.

Yuugi's eyes widened, and then his expression melted. He gave Kaiba a sad look. "I'm sorry," he said only.

Kaiba dropped him back onto the bed and stalked away. "Then I'm afraid I'll be taking the decision out of your hands. I'll be more than happy to drag you over to Egypt and get this ancient Door open. It'll probably only answer to you, since you're his reincarnation. I'd quite like to see my old rival, anyway. And if he's going to help beat this nutcase of ours, then all the better. I'm going to call my private jet and tell them to be ready for the flight. If you don't have your bags packed by the time I come back, then I'll have someone pack them for you," he left the room with that parting remark, leaving the remaining occupants of the room a little startled.

"You can't!" Yuugi yelled after him, and then broke into a fit of coughing as his dry throat protested.

Odion offered him a glass of water from his desk, which he took, swallowing several mouthfuls. "You guys, please, you have to stop him. Convince him that it isn't right, that we should try to find some other way to beat this guy. I'm sure if we put all of our heads together we'll be able to come up with something. We'll go into the virtual world together next time, and Ishizu will be there with her Necklace. One Item should be able to defeat another, right? Right?" Yuugi pleaded in desperation.

"Even if the Item we're trying to defeat is the very one controlling the field we'll be fighting on? The very world itself? I don't know, Yuugi," Marik sighed, "I think we'd be better off with something else. Another Item, if at all possible. But since the dig team hasn't found any other Items, I think we're stuck."

He slammed the glass back down onto the desk beside his bed. "So you agree with Kaiba? That bringing the Pharaoh back is really the best thing to do? The best way to defeat your darker half, since he's beaten him before?" Yuugi asked angrily, feeling a little betrayed. Weren't they the ones who had protected the Pharaoh and his tomb for so many years? Wasn't keeping him in the Afterlife the best thing for him? What were they thinking?

Odion said firmly, "This is not about what we feel is right or wrong. This is about fate and destiny. The Necklace would not be giving our sister those signs for no reason. The future is upon us. We must accept it with both hands." This stopped Yuugi cold.

"Fate and destiny...huh..." he muttered unhappily. It certainly did not feel like fate or destiny. It felt wrong.

Marik gripped his arm and shook him slightly. "So what do you think, Yuugi? Are you okay with us asking him for help once more? To save Noah? To finally get rid of the last pieces of his dark soul?"

Yuugi shook his head. "I can't deny that I think he should remain where he belongs. That we should figure this thing out for ourselves," he considered Marik uncertainly, "but I don't want anybody else to get hurt. I can't deny that I don't want him back either. For so long, I..." he stopped suddenly and rethought what he was going to say, "I guess I'm just torn between trying to figure out what's best. The Pharaoh's happiness or everyone's safety? But it's not even as simple as that." He sighed, and Marik squeezed his arm sympathetically. Yuugi looked fleetingly at Odion, and then back at Marik. "You guys aren't going to leave until I agree, huh?" He questioned tiredly, but his lips were twitching into a smile.

Odion smiled faintly as well. "No,"

His head dropped; Yuugi clasped Marik's hand in his own and nodded in agreement. "Then let's do it, I guess. We'll go get the Other Me." His face looked torn between happiness and misery.

"I think it's high time they had a rematch, anyway," Marik grinned sinisterly, "because our duel never truly ended, now did it? I forfeited. So it's only fair that they get the chance to duel again," his tone turned darker, "and this time the Pharaoh will have a chance to finish him off for good."


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

There was something jabbing him uncomfortably in the ribs, and he turned over sleepily, trying to avoid the feeling. An amused snort sounded from somewhere beside him. Dragging open one eyelid —with some effort, mind you— he got a look out of the corner of his eye as to who was sitting in the seat beside him. Mildly creased white suit pants and polished black shoes greeted his vision. Something like a clacking sound, like the tapping of keys on a keyboard, made itself known to him now. "Hey," he muttered, "I thought you had two seats to yourself. And move your briefcase, it's buggin' me." And then he proceeded to plug his ears with the light blanket draped over him, and snuggled further into the pillow, closing his eye.

The young businessman barely glanced in his direction, but did do as he had requested, pulling the silver case down from where it was wedged in-between the seats to place it on the floor. He looked over the document that he had written and considered an appropriate conclusion. Once more the sound of clacking came from his keyboard. Beside him, curled into a seemingly awkward position on his seat, Joey pulled the blanket further up around his ears and heaved an irritated sigh. When the clacking sound showed no signs of stopping, he sat up with a grunt. "All right, I'm up. Jeez, Kaiba, can't you sleep in like the rest of humanity? It's gotta be like three in the morning. Quit your workin', already." He readjusted the back of his seat so that he could sit up properly and not be leaning back. Joey stretched his arms over his head and heaved a long yawn.

Kaiba looked over at Joey, with his tousled hair, the wrinkled clothing, and the silver dog tags looped around his neck. The relaxed blond had such a groggy expression on his face, and yawning like he was with his tongue lolling out of his mouth, Kaiba could not help the remark that passed his lips. "All these years I'd called you mutt due to your lack of skill in the dueling world and your standing position in society. I'd never realized till just now how much the nickname suited you, Wheeler." He commented, mouth twitching in amusement.

Settling into a more dignified position, Joey shut his mouth with a snap, realizing what he might have looked like. "Oh, shut up. I'm not awake enough this early in the morning to be coming up with comebacks," he grumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

"It's five, Domino time. Hardly early at all." Kaiba replied. He returned to writing his document.

Joey yawned again. "Yeah, well, this plane flight is messing with my internal clock or something. It feels like three. Besides, I never get up at five, ever." He leaned over the armrest and peered at the bright computer screen that Kaiba was assessing. Then he reached out a hand and tapped a key. Kaiba shot him an annoyed look.

"Don't touch my keyboard," he snapped.

He grinned in turn. "Aw, I was just fixing your mistake. Got a kanji letter where it shouldn't be. Maybe your internal clock's messed, too, Kaiba, or else you wouldn't be making spelling mistakes," Joey taunted. The businessman only glared, and then turned to peer at the screen and reread what he had written. With a scowl marring his face, he proceeded to continue writing, though he left the correction alone. Joey scratched his head. "Why aren't you sitting up front like you were before?" He asked in exasperation.

"Mokuba and Tristan wanted to be near Yuugi," Kaiba explained with a glance in his younger brother's direction across the aisle. Yuugi lay uneasily in his seat with a pallid complexion, bundled in a multitude of blankets. Sometime during the flight his temperature had gone from being too hot to being too cold, and it was all everybody could do to keep him from shivering. Lying right next to him in a light slumber was Odion, with bags at his feet containing various herbs and symbolic items that would supposedly banish the darkness for a while, should Yuugi slip suddenly into deeper illness. In the seats in front of him slept Tristan and Mokuba, both with peaceful expressions on their faces. Marik and Bakura slept soundly in seats in front of Joey and Kaiba. "I don't know the reason, since there is obviously nothing that he would be able to do to help should Yuugi ever need anything. But I let them have my seats regardless. I actually had to move my bags containing my business documents. I could be sitting further to the back, but the air is much colder back there, since the vents are directly behind those seats. If you are so bothered by my presence, you are welcome to move."

"No, I think I'll stick right here. It's another chance to bother your sorry corporate butt, man. I can't waste it," Joey mocked. He too cast a look over at Mokuba. "But you know, he's just a kid. You don't need a logical reason to want to be there for someone, Kaiba. He's probably feelin' a little helpless and wantin' to be there for his friend. Tristan too. I know I feel like that. That ever occur to you?"

A sigh. "If you keep blathering on like this, I'll never finish my report,"

He couldn't help the grin that stretched across his cheeks at this statement. "All the better. Who cares about some silly report at a time like this? Oh, yeah, I forgot, you wouldn't stop working even if the world was ending,"

Tapping out his next sentence with rather hard motions in an effort to concentrate on what he was doing, Kaiba retorted, "I would be working to stop the world from ending,"

Joey considered him for a minute, leaving Kaiba to work in peace while he thought. Then he said, "Hey, is something botherin' you? Like the whole thing with Noah? I mean, finding out that he did survive that explosion years ago only to know that he's being held captive must really suck. Is that why you're up so early?"

The computer was turned off with a quick, hard tap of the keys. Kaiba slid the laptop back into its case. "It seems you won't allow me to work in peace, then. No, Wheeler, nothing is bothering me, not even the 'whole thing with Noah'. I happen to wake up this early every day," he shot back, and leaned back in his seat, keeping his eyes from Joey's as he turned to look out of the window.

There was another brief period of silence. "Oh." Joey stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and tried to ignore the sudden awkwardness between them. His fingers felt the edge of something cool and hard in his pocket. Confused, he grasped the thing and pulled it out. "What the—?" Joey wondered in amazement. Kaiba turned to him, his body clearly radiating irritation.

"What is it now?" Wordlessly, Joey handed him the rectangular picture frame that had been in his pocket. Kaiba took it and stared.

Noah's intelligent gaze had stripped him of his breath. He stood stiffly beside his father, Gozaburo, who was seated in a great big chair looking grim and determined. Kaiba let his fingers run along the smooth metal of the frame. His irritation gone, he looked at Joey sternly, but with confusion. "Where did you happen upon this?"

Shrugging, Joey tried to come up with a reasonable explanation that would not be completely dismissed by the very logical thinker beside him. "Your, uh, virtual world. Or, Noah's, I guess." He winced. Joey had never been one for explanations.

"Pardon? You brought this back out of a _virtual_ world?" Kaiba said, not buying it in the least.

"Well," Joey said defensively, "Yuugi brought his sickness out of the virtual world with him. Why not a picture frame? I mean, we all kind of came back with what we had encountered in the virtual world. I mean, look," Joey tugged at his shirt, pointing at the scorch marks. He still had on his clothing from the day before, due to the sudden flight that Kaiba had them take. They all did. "Got those from a lightning blast. Boy, did it ever hurt. Don't get hit by lightning, Kaiba. Not the most fun thing in the world, really." He advised seriously.

Kaiba frowned deeply. "Are you trying to tell me that the same Shadow magic that is making Yuugi ill gave you a picture frame?"

"When you put it like that...doesn't really seem like a Shadow thing to do, does it...hmm..."

Kaiba sighed in exasperation. The conversation was getting him nowhere. He eyed the picture again and turned it over, ignoring Joey's gaze which he could feel boring a hole into his shoulder. Sliding the little plastic knobs away from the frame, he pulled out the back and took out the picture. Now...there might be something sharp in his briefcase, if he could only think...

"Take my pocket knife," Joey suggested, holding out the metal object. There had been no security checks due to the fact that it was one of Kaiba's personal jets, and so he still had the item. Kaiba looked up at him, and realized Joey knew what he was thinking. Strange. He took the knife and popped open the blade, and then considered the picture.

It only took one clean slice to remove the side of the picture that held Noah from the side that held Gozaburo. He returned Noah to the frame and eyed his adopted father with extreme dislike. "Happen to have a lighter somewhere too, Wheeler?" He asked in total seriousness, returning the blade to him.

"Nah, but you can just tear it into pieces when we get off. Wouldn't want little scraps of his picture on your plane now, I'm assuming." Joey responded lightly.

Kaiba eased back into the seat once more and slid both Noah and Gozaburo into his pocket. "No," he returned easily.

Joey tilted his head curiously. "Gonna make a duel monster locket outta Noah's picture like you did Mokuba's?" His tone was soft, caring, clear of all judgements and mocking that he usually held in regards to him. Kaiba considered the question and found that he liked the idea.

"Maybe." Stretching his legs out, he folded his arms across his chest and stared at the rolling white clouds passing over the plane's wings outside of the tiny window. "Your sister still can't remember much of the incident?" He questioned, although he could not be certain why he was doing so. The girl was of no concern to him; she was the mutt's younger sister and nothing more. And he certainly wasn't worried about her mental state. He supposed he was just showing some courtesy to the man who had asked about his sibling.

There was a groan, and then a heave of breath, as Joey made an attempt at keeping his temper down. "No. Rod totally messed with her memories. Couldn't even remember where the pod was that she'd been in. Barely even recalled that she'd been saved by us outside the courthouse. Ugh." He ground his teeth together absently. In the seat next to him Kaiba frowned and shifted in his seat, remarking silently in his head that the conversation had gone down right...well...conversational...and it was making for annoying pretences. He hoped that Joey did not expect him to continue speaking any more about this. In fact, he had well used up nearly all of his words for the mutt for the day, and he wasn't about to lower himself to talk to Joey any further. "But it's okay, since she went with Téa's family on a little holiday for a while, up the coast a ways. So she's out of his reach for now. I mean, both of them. Well, I was never too worried about Téa. She was always able to handle herself in tough situations. It'll be good for Serenity to hang around her for a while. And they'll be okay until we get back. He can't possibly know where they are."

He gave a noncommittal grunt, effectively ending the conversation between them.

With a hesitant intake of breath, Joey posed one more question to the businessman beside him. He didn't want to seem uniformed, but his curiosity would not be ignored. "So, uh, if it's five in Domino time, what time is it, exactly, in Egypt? I mean, it's pretty dark outside still..."

"It's still before midnight." Came the curt reply.

"Huh..."

The ceiling lights flickered on as the plane's captain came on the intercom and informed the passengers of their arrival. The airport was a short distance below them, and they were told to put on their seatbelts and be ready to exit the aircraft when it landed. A flight attendant came in from another compartment and gently shook awake everyone who wasn't already up. There was a general round of yawning and shuffling around at the announcement, as everyone sat up and got their bags together. They all regretted that Yuugi had to be awoken; he looked like he needed the sleep and sitting up was not the best position for his body to be in (he was wincing in pain as his abdomen protested the movement). Odion gave him a small amulet inscribed with the Eye to hold onto, and he curled his fingers around the bronze ring tightly.

Eventually the plane set down on the runway. The group of unlikely friends ambled their way out of the plane and down the chute that had attached to the side of the aircraft. Odion was carrying Yuugi on his back: only one of his legs could move and the other caused him pain to move, and so no one expected him to try walking. The receiving lobby that they had entered was private and so held no other passengers exiting from other planes. With only the sound of their feet hitting the carpeted floor, they left the area and moved to the main waiting area. There were not that many other people that they could see, just the occasional couple or Egyptian businessman in a stiff suit, and so Ishizu was quite easy to spot in her traditional gown and headdress. She waved them over.

Her eyes first set upon her brothers, whom she greeted with a warm smile, and a hug for Marik. Then she looked at Yuugi, and though her smile was just as warm, it held a tinge of sadness. He tried to offer her some reassurance with a cheerful greeting in Japanese, but it did little to dull the concern on her face. With a quick glance over the rest of the group, she motioned them to follow her. "I have two cars waiting outside to take you to your hotel. We'll get your bags, first, though. They should be coming around the bag pickup sometime soon."

She took the burden of carrying Odion and Yuugi's bags, and together they all left the air-conditioned building and stepped out into the mildly warm Egyptian night. It was a welcome, if unexpected, change in temperature, and both Marik and Odion felt some of their tension release into the atmosphere. "It's good to be back," Marik murmured in appreciation to his sister. Ishizu tilted her head in acknowledgement.

Odion, Yuugi, and Joey entered one vehicle; Kaiba, Mokuba, Bakura, and Tristan entered another. Ishizu and Marik left for their own home near the outskirts of Luxor. Odion would have left with them as well, but the Ishtars decided that at least one of their family should room with Yuugi to watch over him. Although it was nearing sunrise in Domino, it was late in the night in Luxor and everyone thought that they had better try to go back to sleep to quickly adjust to the new time zone. Yuugi especially needed the rest. So they came to the hotel and immediately went to their rooms, bidding each other goodnight.

For the next day they would resurrect a Pharaoh.

xXx

The pastry was far messier than he had originally thought it was going to be, and now a mixture of syrup and cinnamon with nuts was running down his fingers. Bakura licked it off of his skin absent-mindedly and caught Marik's smirk from across the table. He cleared his throat in embarrassment and quickly wiped his hands on a napkin. "Liking the food here already?" Marik enquired, taking a drink of his black coffee.

"Oh, yes. What was this called again? It's really tasty," he smiled in enjoyment.

"Asabi gullash," Marik replied with a chuckle, "when you're finished I'll show you around Luxor, if you like. There's lots to see here. And if I remember right, you didn't really get a chance to see much of it last time you were here, right?" His lavender eyes sparkled under his lashes, or perhaps it was Bakura's imagination —it might have had something to do with the black eyeliner Marik was wearing. He felt uncomfortable under his gaze, though he couldn't quite be sure of the reason, since he didn't really know the man at all. The spirit of the Ring had known him; had done business with him, Bakura had been told, but the spirit had never told him of anything that he did. So Bakura didn't really have a lot of memories of the man that he was sitting across from, though he had (or his body had, at any rate) probably spent some time with him. It was an awkward situation, and he wasn't sure of how to act.

There was a moment of tentative contemplation. "I just mostly remember the plane trip back, to be honest," he answered politely, "it would be nice to see the city before we go to the excavation site, I suppose. We still have several hours before the workers take their break and we can visit without any interruptions, am I right? If it is not too much trouble...?" His tone quivered a breath with uncertainty.

Marik clapped his hands together and laughed. "No, of course not. Come on, we'll ride on my motorcycle. It'll be interesting, I promise." He stood and Bakura stood with him, and they abandoned the little table at the coffee shop in the hotel.

Bakura's eyes were wide, and it was making Marik laugh a little more, much to his confusion. "Ah...a motorcycle...?"

"What, you don't want to?"

"Oh, no, I never meant...um, I've never...ridden on a motorcycle. It seems very...dangerous." Bakura picked up his pace a little to match Marik's long strides. Marik lifted an eyebrow at him and grinned a little devilishly.

"Only if you don't know how to drive," he teased. Bakura swallowed.

They drove off into the crowded streets, Bakura perhaps hanging on a little tighter than necessary, Marik perhaps driving a little faster than necessary. From high above them, Odion watched them leave and marvelled at how two people who had been so affected by evil spirits were now getting along well with each other. It was a quiet thought that was then interrupted by his present troubles, and so he sighed and then left the window. He turned back to his patient, who panted and twisted in his sheets, unable to sleep and yet unable to open his eyes. He had refused all food and drink offered to him, and clutched at his stomach as though insects were digging under his skin.

The candles were dying down. Odion made to replace them.

Zipping past another group of people, Marik and Bakura skidded around a corner and Bakura cried out plaintively for his speed-addicted friend to slow down, and _please_. Laughing hard, Marik acquiesced to his plea. And finally, with the wind blowing in his snow-white hair, and the smells of the market all around him, Bakura began to enjoy himself. Now he could understand why Marik owned a motorcycle. Although they were still a little too dangerous, he thought.

Marik drove them around the city, pointing out everywhere he liked to go and what he liked to do there. They passed rows of stores and delicious smelling foods and came to a dirt road that led out of the city. Slowing down, Marik stopped the motorcycle off the road and pointed off into the distance, past sand dunes and the last crumbling buildings of the city. Bakura eased off his grip around Marik's waist and squinted his eyes into the distance. "That's where we'll be headed later today," Marik told him, "a couple of hours down that winding dirt road to this cliff face. Do you remember the Chamber?" He twisted in his seat slightly to tilt his head at Bakura, who was busy blinking the sand and dust out of his eyes.

"Hmm...well, I remember this dark stone staircase, and collapsing on it," Bakura offered, rubbing his eyes with one hand. He was wearing a striped t-shirt that now looked more than a little dusty from their trip around the city. Bakura wet his lips and said, "Isn't there a Chamber...in Kul Elna?"

Marik started, his body tensing without him meaning it to. "Well...yes. The Millennium Stone once resided in Kul Elna, but it was moved for unknown reasons. It was in a temple under the watchful eyes of the guardians of the Millennium Items for a while after that, but then it was moved again to the Chamber built deep under the cliff. Kul Elna's in a different direction," he thought for a moment, and then pointed off down another dirt road, "that way. It's only ruins, now, though, Bakura. Ruins and dust."

He blinked helplessly. "Oh,"

Looking over him once more, Marik said, "You...want to see it? Kul Elna?"

"Oh." Bakura considered the matter only briefly, breathing in the smell of gasoline as he thought, "yes, I think so, if it isn't too out of the way? I don't want to be a bother..."

"You're no bother at all. And we'd make it back in time to meet the others to go to the dig site. Though," Marik shot him a sly smile, "we'd be missing lunch."

This remark achieved a rather amusing shade of pink in Bakura's pale cheeks. He grinned sheepishly. "I don't mind."

And so, with Marik's laughter ringing in his ears, they sped off out of the city and down the road on the motorcycle. Bakura put up with the increase in speed, since they were not likely to hit anything, and in turn Marik put up with his tight grip. An hour or so out of the city, and quite exhausted from the long ride, they slid off the vehicle and stood in uneasy silence at the edges of the ruined village.

There was a moment of dusting as they attempted to get all of the sand out of their hair and clothing. Then, hesitantly, Bakura stepped into the village. Marik followed.

The buildings were indeed old, and having stood for over three thousand years of time, there was not exactly much left of them. The stone was crumbling and broken, and many chunks of smooth rock littered the path they walked (pieces of houses? monuments? something else? they couldn't tell). They walked into some of the still standing structures (with much caution, since they could probably collapse at any moment) though there was really nothing to see. At one point, the ruins seemed to form a ring, signalling that they might be in a courtyard of sorts, or a village square. At some points the stone was taller than them, still managing to hang on through the centuries of sandstorms and rain and wind, while at other times the rock was so eroded that it did not even reach their knees. Bakura took it all in with rounded eyes, touching the cool stone and tracing the runes and hieroglyphs that they found with his fingers. Marik read them to him: snippets of tales about the ancient gods, some blessings on good fortune and luck.

When Kul Elna had first been discovered, was there anything else found other than these ruins? Bakura had asked, and Marik had told him of the artefacts in the museum that had been dug up from the sand. The broken pottery, the children's toys, worn and barely recognizable. Weapons, and plenty of them: rusted or broken and dull, but intact. Jewellery. Nothing of particular significance.

Bakura ran his finger across another etching in a broken pillar. It stood in a row with a couple of others, and across from it were more pillars. There was no ceiling, but many shattered stones in the middle of the two rows, which must have once been what the pillars held up. "Miniature temple, or something like it. There might have been a statue of a favoured God in this place once. The people of the village would come here to make offerings to it." Marik explained. Bakura nodded.

"It feels very sad, doesn't it? Like walking through a graveyard," Bakura mumbled.

There was a pause as his friend digested this. "A graveyard finally at peace, I think. A lot of terrible things happened here once, but I think the souls finally moved on. Even the Ring spirit. Well, forcibly."

"He was very sad, though, wasn't he?"

Marik started. He blinked dazedly at Bakura, seemingly out of place among all of the apricot-coloured sand and cold stone with his stark white hair and pale skin. Somehow he managed to fit right in, and was observing the entire scene as though he was reliving a flickering memory of a long forgotten past. This was the third time that day that the Japanese man had surprised him. The first had been when he had all but devoured the dessert Marik had offered him. The second had been when he had asked about Kul Elna. _He was very sad_. What was he talking about? "The Ring spirit?" He asked blearily.

Pulling away from the pillar, he gave Marik a confused look. "Yes. Don't you think he was sad?"

"Eh...no...it seemed like he was on more of a psychotic rampage...very determined to have his revenge, you know. That sort of thing."

Bakura blinked. "Oh."

Sighing, he shaded his eyes from the sun and pulled out his cell phone to check the time. "We'd better start heading back if we want to be in Luxor within a reasonable amount of time. Are you ready, or did you want to keep exploring? We've only seen about half the ruins," Marik slipped the phone back into his pocket and waited for a response.

The sun was beating down with a lighter force than usual today, much to both their relief, and so they were not overly hot by the ride out or by the exploring. However, though Bakura had filled his pores with sun protection, he was definitely feeling the effects of the heat, even with all of the clouds in the sky. There was only a slight breeze. "No, let's head back, I think. I've seen enough, thank-you."

They climbed on the motorcycle and once more sped back up the dirt road to the city, leaving Kul Elna and a thousand forgotten memories behind.

Bakura half-imagined that he could see the edges of a crimson cloak disappearing behind a ruin as they drove away, but when he turned to look, there was nothing.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

The atmosphere in the Chamber was very different from what it had been years ago. This might have mostly been due to all of the sunlight beating down from above, as there was no longer any ceiling, and but half of the support pillars still standing. The stone staircase had been only partly dug out and rebuilt, and so they entered the large space by an open electric elevator (powered by sunlight) that had been brought painstakingly to the site. The grinding of the elevator echoed across the heavy stone and caused shivers to run down their spines. Much of the equipment the restoration team had been using to move pieces of the ceiling and dig out the staircase was still in the Chamber, though the workers had gone for a break. Dusty machinery and hand tools lay scattered about the space, causing them to weave about the room in order to reach their destination. Much of the hieroglyphs that had once covered part of the walls and pillars were now ruined, and where there once might have been a complete sentence, the stone had been chipped badly or scraped off so that there were many blank spaces. The only sound that now could be heard in the Chamber was the soft tapping of their feet as they made their way across the room.

The Door was just as intact as Ishizu had told them it was, along with most of the platform before it. The only thing that seemed to be missing was the Millennium Stone: a gaping crack in the platform showed that it had fallen far below the Chamber. Whether it would be possible to recover the Stone seemed highly unlikely. But then, the fact that the Rod and the Necklace had showed up had also seemed impossible before it had actually happened. The group gathered in front of the platform and looked on at the golden Eye amidst all of the ancient Egyptian writing, and at both Eyes above the door, with the symbol of the Puzzle between them. Was it a trick of the sunlight on the gold, or did they really seem to be emitting a faint glow?

Not knowing what exactly they should be doing, they stood for several breaths before Ishizu spoke with sudden clarity. "Long ago, to open the Door we used both the name of the Pharaoh and the seven Millennium Items placed in the Stone. We do not have seven Items, but we do have my Necklace, and I think that if we again speak the Pharaoh's name in front of the Door it shall open for us." Her fingers brushed the Necklace, sparkling mutely against her bronze skin. She looked at Yuugi, who with eyes cracked open stared back, breathing heavily from his position on Odion's back. He nodded weakly, knowing what she would say to him. "You will then take the Necklace, Yuugi, and stand in front of the Door, and then speak his name," she unclasped the gold chain from her neck and handed the Necklace dangling from the chain to Yuugi. His fingers were unnaturally cold, she decided with a bit of a shock, as she handed the Item over.

They waited in uneasy silence as Odion took the few steps up to the top of the platform. He avoided the gap in the middle (where a makeshift mesh fence had been placed around it) and stopped a few feet from the Door, lowering Yuugi carefully to the ground. He stepped back, leaving Yuugi there as he rejoined the others below the platform.

It seemed inevitable that he should be kneeling again before the very place where his long-time friend and partner had disappeared from their world. _A champion does not belong on his knees_. That was what he had told him then, wasn't it? Yuugi looked down at his infected legs and took a steadying breath. He had to use both hands to shift his numb leg to the side, so that he might be able to pull his other leg beneath him and push up on it. His hands pushed hard against the cold, unforgiving stone. His breath caught in his throat at the searing pain that shot down his thigh and into his calf. Clenching his jaw to keep from crying out, he raised himself unsteadily on both feet. Standing, but just barely. His muscles and nerves throbbed a relentless rhythm, and he tightened his grip on the Necklace to try and block the feeling out. Yuugi traced the Eye on the middle of the Necklace with his thumb. Shadow magic hummed beneath the metal, caressing his fingertips with a gentle spark. A spark only: this was not the Item that he had been destined to wield, and so it would never offer its full power to anyone other than Ishizu, except perhaps on a whim.

Pharaoh, I'm sorry, Yuugi thought. I don't know if this is what we should be doing. I only know that we need you, Pharaoh, your strength and your courage and determination. He's too powerful. He doesn't have Marik to hold him back. And this time he isn't working for Marik's goals, either, he's working for his own. That's what makes him so dangerous. We don't know what he's planning, we only know that he wants to hurt us. We're not sure how far he's willing to go to achieve those goals. But he's hurt a lot of people already. I know that when Zorc was defeated all true evil was supposed to have left the earth. That's what we were told, wasn't it? So what does this mean for Dark Marik? And when you passed through the Door, the Items were supposed to be lost forever. But they weren't. They came back. There's so many things that haven't gone as they should've. And you were the only one who stopped him last time, Other Me. Joey struggled hard in his duel during Battle City to get as far as he did. But you kept up with his moves and his strategies. So we need you. I only hope that you can return to your peace as soon as this is over.

"And..." whispered Yuugi, "if you say no...of course we'll respect your wishes..."

He sent a respectful prayer to all of the Egyptian gods that he could think of as he held up the Necklace to the Eye on the Door. The Item was now pouring golden light from his fingers, shedding the light across the floor to pool at his feet and slink across the stone, creeping up to the hieroglyphs on the Door. Each one stayed lit where it had been touched by the light, and soon, the entire Door was alit with glowing characters. He took this as a sign that he was doing the right thing. Clearing his throat hesitantly, Yuugi called out in a slightly raised voice. "Please, open the Door once more. We mean no harm to the resting souls within. We only...wish to ask the help of a Pharaoh who passed through here a few years ago." Yuugi risked a glance back at his friends, and found them staring calmly and resolutely back. He took in a deep breath.

"I am Yuugi Mutou...reincarnation of the son of Aknamkanon, Pharaoh Atem!"

And the Door opened.

It started with a shudder, as the giant slab of stone seemed to split straight down the middle in a perfect line. The faint glow of the Eye on the Door that they had sensed winked out in an instant, as well as the light from all of the glowing hieroglyphs. But it was soon replaced by an even stronger light, a white light, straining at the ever-widening crack in the middle of the stone. And then, with another shudder, the two slabs of stone began to slide apart.

Yuugi covered his eyes with both hands, blinded by the white light. He felt a strange tugging at his clothes, and the chains at his belt jingled wildly. His feet slipped; with a cry, he fell over onto his back, dropping the Necklace. The tugging became more insistent. It was dragging him across the stone floor now, pulling him towards the Door. I'm being sucked in! Yuugi thought in shock. He yelled aloud for his friends...

...and within a single breath he had vanished into the white abyss.

"YUUGI!" Everyone screamed for him, stunned and uncertain and afraid for their friend; no one _alive _had ever gone into the Afterlife, surely not, surely this was not happening...

"Ah!" Bakura was suddenly yelling out as well in fear, his feet becoming almost magnetized by the force being emitted from the Door. He slipped forward, being pulled by some strong windless power: there was no air being whipped about, as they half-expected. Alarmed, Joey and Tristan reached out with their arms, grabbing him by the shoulders and holding onto their friend tightly.

"Hang on, Bakura!" Joey shouted, and the sound echoed wildly. He was being loud, but it seemed like a moment to be loud in, for everything just seemed to be too quiet for such a scene. The Chamber was too cold and emotionless (shrine that it was), but his friend was being sucked in_ by the Door to the Afterlife_ and so Joey screamed for all that he was worth. "AH!"

With another beat of their hearts Bakura was ripped from their arms and sucked in.

And then the Door was sliding closed. Without even thinking they all raced forward, bolted for the Door, but then the light was fading, and with a shuddering boom the two slabs of stone slammed together once more. The light ceased.

The Millennium Necklace lay gleaming harmlessly on the floor.

xXx

Heat beat onto his back, easing the tension in his muscles and soothing the pounding in his skull. The ground beneath him had many dips, rises, and hollows, and he found it felt quite gritty under his skin. For the second time in two short days, Yuugi opened his eyes and got a good look at the new world he suddenly found himself in.

A desert.

Most certainly a desert. He had never seen so much sand in his entire life. Well, not counting the trip to the Chamber, when he had stared out of the van at the sand dunes all around them. But even then there had been rocky cliffs in the distance, and the bustling city behind them. This was...well, it was almost endless. Groaning aloud, he raised himself shakily from the ground into a sitting position. And he noticed for the first time that his legs did not seem to be causing him any grief.

Heart pounding in excitement, but hardly daring to believe, Yuugi hesitantly pulled up his pant legs in search of the multi-coloured skin that signalled an infection.

Still there.

He let out another groan. Then, thoughtfully, he attempted to wriggle the toes in his numb leg. And was relieved that he could feel them moving. "So..." he murmured to himself, a habit of his more lonely days as a teenager, "I'm still infected with Shadows, but for some reason my body isn't feeling the affects of it." He blinked up at the sun in the sky, and found to his surprise that he did not feel in the least bit blinded by staring directly at it. "Am I unable to feel any pain in the Afterlife?" Yuugi wondered in awe.

His awe was short lived as he came to terms with his situation. He was stuck in the Afterlife. For dead people. Which he was most definitely not. And he had just wanted to talk to his friend, ask him for help... "I've got to find the Pharaoh!" Yuugi declared, and jumped up to his feet. Spinning on the spot, he realized he had another problem. There was sand in every direction, and no landmarks that he could see. Where should he start looking?

The heat warmed his skin pleasantly while he thought, not causing him to get any hotter, but keeping him from getting any colder as well. Presently he felt a familiar thought bumble through the back of his mind. When he concentrated on it, he felt the thought become several, and then those several thoughts become a feeling. It wasn't quite like a memory, and he didn't really know what specific thoughts he had found or what the exact feeling was, but it reminded him distinctly of his other self. It was a warm feeling, much like the desert heat, only it was stringing chords in his mind and settling the concern he had over his problems.

Our mind link, thought Yuugi. It's back.

Now, knowing exactly what he should do, he felt in the back of his head for the right shadowy thoughts and felt his mind being tugged at in response. Yuugi turned on the spot, and looked off into the distance. It seemed just like any other direction, but he knew it to be the right one. He started off, picking his way across the sand dunes. The link hummed in the back of his mind.

xXx

He did not know how long he had been walking for, but it felt like hours. Only it could not have been hours. The sun in the sky had only dipped slightly from its zenith, so perhaps a little less than a hour had passed. Unless time passed differently in the Afterlife. Which it probably did, all considering that it was an entirely different world than Earth. Or a different plane. Or dimension. Or something along those lines. A millennia could have passed and he probably would have never known it.

"Oh, dear," sighed Bakura, "I'm never going to get anywhere by thinking like that. So positive thoughts only," he told himself firmly.

Sometime ago he would have been more concerned about where he was going rather than how long he had been going there, but Bakura had long run out of thoughts on that particular subject. The sand dunes seemed to go on forever, and he trudged wearily (not physically, though, he felt rather energized for some reason) through them with no thought for as to when they were going to end.

Bakura wasn't very sure why he had chosen this precise direction, but he was sure there was a reason, however foggy it was in the back of his mind. It had something to do with the nagging feeling in the back of his head, that strange shiver of shadows and sand that flitted through his consciousness and started tugging at memories he thought he had buried deep down.

Standing in an alley with no recollection as to how he'd gotten there. Knives in both hands. Bakura pretended all colour had faded, for this memory.

Running through the streets in the dark, a voice snickering in his mind. A church. He had been begging the voice to stop, he had been sure. What the voice had said was something he had buried even further than the vision of the scene.

A friend of his, sitting across from him at a game table. A role playing game. The friend held a hand-painted figurine. Bakura knew why the memory blanked after this.

Turning in his chair at Domino High School. Looking over his shoulder at Yuugi, laughing among his other friends. Catching a glimpse of the upturned pyramid hanging from his neck. Bakura did not know why his memory blanked after this.

Clutching his head, he rubbed his fingers through his hair and heaved a shuddering sigh. This is silly, Bakura thought. I should just stop and not go any further. I should just turn around and...

...and what? There was nothing to do, nowhere to go to. He did not even know where Yuugi was, who had been the first to be pulled into the Afterlife. It would make sense to start looking for him, but he had no idea where to _start_. All he had was the vague feeling in the back of his head that kept reminding him of his unwanted memories, that kept reminding him of the way it reminded him of his unwanted memories, that...well, he could go on. It was a very familiar feeling. And not in a good way. It was the sort of familiar tugging at the mind that could be related to the feeling of being stalked. Bakura had half a mind to keep looking over his shoulder, but he refrained from doing so. There didn't seem to be anything else out there with him.

So he continued walking, although moving in this direction was creating more of the sand and shadows in his mind, and thereby creating more of the familiar feeling. He was close, he could feel it. There was such a swirl of sand in his mind that he would almost call it tangible, tugging and brushing against his surface thoughts with all of the single-mindedness of a curious cat. Bakura climbed a large dune, his sneakers finding poor purchase in the sand that rolled down the dune with each step. When he became slightly tired, he stopped for a breath and found that his energy quickly returned to him. It was marvellous. At length he reached the top of the dune.

Bakura's eyes widened at the first change in scenery since his arrival in the Afterlife. There, on the other side of the dune, was a stone door. Hanging there at the back of a stone floor, perfectly vertical. There was no wall, no building, just the bit of floor and the door. Or at least, he presumed it to be a door, even though there was no doorknob. It had a smooth face, but there was a line of hieroglyphs etched into the centre. Unfortunately he knew no ancient Egyptian, though he supposed Yuugi might have known some of the characters due to his study at the local college. His father would have been able to read it, but he was not present either.

Swallowing, Bakura skidded down the other side of the dune, and stopped on the stone. The sand in his mind had become very still all of a sudden, and he felt for it in his head nervously. Then the shadows brushed across his thoughts, and once more he felt the tugging, and the familiar feeling. Bakura let out a breath he hadn't known he'd been holding. The feeling was much less insistent now, but rather calm, but he imagined it like a cat: licking its claws and eyeing any possible disturbances.

The door was a little daunting, and Bakura thought that he had really had quite enough of doors, for the time being. Actually, just Egyptian doors. Or ancient Egyptian doors. Anything with a hieroglyph on it. Or an Eye. Yes, he really did not want to walk up to that black face, and tap on it, and see if it opened onto some other dimension that was even deeper than the one he was currently in, which was probably quite deep (that is to say very far away from Earth and far away from anywhere that wasn't the Afterlife).

Bakura edged around the stone door and peered around the back of it.

More dunes.

He returned to the front and pursed his lips. The cat in his head was shifting eagerly. "Yes, yes," Bakura muttered. Reaching out one pale hand, he tapped lightly on the stone.

It swung open with absolutely no noise at all. Beyond, he could see that the world through the door was much darker and held almost no light in the sky. The sand was much redder, and there were clouds all across the velvet black sky, with a slim red sun poking out between them every so often. Bakura stepped through with only a fleeting thought to his safety. The door closed behind him, snapping out the rest of the light and warmth from the other sun. It did not disappear, as he had been expecting.

All of the shadows in his mind became suddenly much sharper. He felt as if he might be able to figure out what they were and why they were there, if only he could sort them out properly. Instead of dwelling upon such things, though, he followed the tugging up another set of sand dunes and stopped at the top of the third in the row.

Below him was Kul Elna.

Sucking in a breath, Bakura wondered at the sight below him. Though he had only visited the ruins the day that he had entered the Door, the memory was still fresh with him, and these completely intact buildings did seem terribly similar to the crumbled stones he had seen before. But how was it that a village that existed on Earth also existed in the Afterlife? He did not know, and did not bother pausing to consider it. Skidding down the dune he was on, Bakura picked up his pace and made his way into the village.

It was just as he'd thought it'd look like. Every structure was where it should be, the small huts that served as houses, the lean-tos and shacks that had once probably served as market stalls. There was the courtyard, yes, just as he thought it'd be. And the low walls around the buildings: for holding some livestock, perhaps. Some chickens or a goat or two. Bakura explored with interest, moving past building after building before finally noting the sharp darkness in his mind. It was not so mindless anymore, but very clear and defined. He felt like he could pluck it like a string, but he decided against it, not sure he wanted to disturb the thing.

There was an interesting set of wooden doors in the ground that lay open next to a building, with stone steps leading down into the darkness below. A cellar? Thought Bakura, but he wasn't so sure. Cautiously, he descended. His sneakers made little noise. After a while, the steps ended.

He was standing on one side of a great room, with the ceiling several meters above him and pillars interspersed throughout to keep it that way. Wide cracks in the ceiling let down some of the fiery light from above, illuminating the centre of the room but not much near the edges or corners. Near the other side of the room was a great platform, with a set of steps leading up to it. On the platform rested something that Bakura recognized instantly as the Millennium Stone, and it startled him a little. So this is where it used to reside, Bakura thought. He approached the platform.

Standing at the top of the steps before the Stone, Bakura realized with a shock that not every hollow was empty. There in the middle, just below where the Puzzle would fit, was the Millennium Ring.

Unable to help himself, Bakura stepped closer and began to reach out to touch the Item, just to see if it was real and he really wasn't imagining things. He was caught in a state of disbelief and couldn't quite wrap his head around all of the events that had been thrown at him recently, and this had been the most disbelieving thing yet. But something caught his eye just below the platform, and so he hopped down from where he was leaning over the Stone to get a better look.

A crimson cloak greeted his vision. There was a person underneath it, lying lazily against the back of the platform with both eyes closed. It was a man: dark-skinned, and muscled, with a triple scar under one eye. His hair was shoulder-length and white, layered in such a fashion that one could tell it had been achieved with a knife, probably blunt.

Bakura had never met the spirit of the Millennium Ring face to face, yet somehow he knew this man instantly as that spirit. He was having trouble breathing, and was having trouble keeping his heart rate down, and for some reason the darkness lurking in his head made a sudden _leap _to jerk at the rest of his mind, and all at once the spirit opened his eyes.

He blinked. Several times.

"H-hullo," stammered Bakura, "um, so we meet again, I guess,"

The spirit did not answer him. His reddish-violet eyes were slightly wide, and he considered Bakura steadily, unblinkingly, as though he expected him to disappear at any moment.

Clearing his throat uneasily, Bakura tried for some meaningless conversation, since anything was better than mentioning—

Monster World.

You trapped their souls in figurines.

You hurt everyone else.

You hurt _me_.

—all of the things that he really didn't know how to mention, so he thought it would be better to start with something safer. "You were the voice in my head," Bakura offered, thinking briefly that maybe the spirit didn't know him, that maybe after all of those years in the Afterlife he had forgotten things.

"What are you doing here?" The spirit asked sharply, angrily. Never mind how Bakura had gotten there. Never mind that it was impossible that he was there.

He was a little amazed that the spirit was talking to him, actually _talking_ _to him_, since the spirit had rarely bothered with conversation with his host. So he struggled for a moment to formulate an answer, and all the while the spirit narrowed his eyes and grew more angry. "I don't know," Bakura told him finally, after exhausting every possible thought on the subject and not exactly sure if this was the right answer. It basically explained nothing to the spirit, so probably not.

The response he got was not something he was expecting. "I see," said the spirit coldly, and then he proceeded to adjust his cloak, pulling the hood over his head and over his eyes, "leave, then."

Bakura gaped at him. That's it? I show up in the Afterlife and all he says is 'leave'? Isn't he curious about why I'm here? Isn't he interested in talking to me even a little? "I don't know how," he told the spirit miserably, "I followed the shadows in the back of my mind and they brought me here. I thought this was where I was supposed to be."

"Shadows," mused the spirit, "ah. A link between our minds from the time that I inhabited your body, nothing more." He titled his head slightly, bringing his eyes up to consider Bakura more deeply. He scowled. "Are you dead?" His body jumped slightly at the insinuation, and Bakura shook his head furiously. "Then this is no place for you to be," the spirit snapped, and settled into a more relaxed position once more, apparently finished with him.

Shuffling on his feet, Bakura tried to figure out what to say. There were so many things that he could ask, so many things that he wanted to ask, and yet only one question struck his tongue at the moment. "Have you...finally moved on?" He whispered into the quiet.

A minute or so passed before the spirit answered him, voice hard and emotionless.

"The Pharaoh won our Shadow game," he began, and Bakura sensed that he was about to explain something important to him in that one moment, and so he dropped to the floor beside the Ring spirit, folding his legs beneath him. Bakura looked on at the face hidden beneath the crimson cloak, stark white hair and slight curve of the chin the only things that were visible to him. And he was not afraid of the spirit then, this person who had died long ago and had done terrible things in his life. He was overcome with the sudden yearning to understand the man before him. And so he stayed quiet, and listened as the spirit spoke of his last battle. "As Zorc and I were destroyed, I was sent not to the Shadow Realm, but to the Afterlife. Zorc's soul was consumed completely. The existence that was once Zorc is no longer. I, on the other hand...I am a human soul whose fate is governed by the gods. And so I was sent here, to this place, by their decision." Bakura quietly curled his legs up and rested his chin on his knees, trying not to breathe so loudly. He was sure the spirit could hear him. He didn't want to disturb him. This was the first time that Bakura had heard so many words coming from the spirit and directed at him, and he didn't want to interrupt for anything, even if he had a lot of questions brimming in his mind.

"Some days, Ammit comes to eat away at my soul. I do not die, no. I am left bleeding, but breathing, half-existing but not quite, in this village that I once called my home. And there, in pain and unable to move, I am allowed to relive the horrors. All of the images in my mind are brought forth to act out once more in this village of mine." His voice dropped in tone, and Bakura had not thought that it could become more emotionless, yet somehow it did. He thought that he could see the spirit's violet eyes beneath his white bangs, storming violently with some unnamed emotion. "They come, far more than we can handle. We are but villagers, and stand no chance against trained warriors. They come baring the name of the Pharaoh, and then they start killing. All of them. Every one. All of the children. All of the women. All of the elderly. The dying. The sick. They kill them all." They missed you, thought Bakura, but said nothing. The spirit continued, "There is fire. The village is burnt to the ground. And finally, as the last embers die down, I find myself able to move my ripped and torn body. And then Ammit comes again." He fell silent for another breath. And then he let out a harsh, insane laugh. "And that is what I live through in this Afterlife of mine, dear host. Reliving my worst memory over and over and having a demon chew on my soul. It's their retribution, you see. I threatened the world the gods cherished. So now I must suffer for my crimes. For all eternity."

They were both quiet for quite a while. For how long, Bakura was not certain. So you have not moved on then, he thought, a little sadly. You did terrible things once, but now terrible things are being done to you. When will it ever stop? He whispered to the spirit tentatively, "Do you want to come back with me?"

He could hear nothing save for the roaring in his ears of the blood rushing through his veins.

The spirit looked up.

"Well, I don't really know how I'm going to get out of here, but I know how to get you out of this village, and that's a start, at least. We'll figure out the rest together," the tone was questioning, hesitating, uncertain, but his face was hopeful.

The spirit blinked his violet eyes.

Bakura said, "But you're going to need a name. I can't call you by my name, you know, because even if your name is Bakura too, that would seem weird, because it's my family name, and everyone else calls me Bakura, and I don't like the idea of hearing myself call someone else the same thing they call me. And I can't call you Voice like I did when you were in my head, because you were in my head then, and I just thought that was all you were, you know. But you're a person, obviously, so that won't work. Do you have another name?" He asked, his voice muffled somewhat as he was speaking into the fabric of his pants with his nose against his knees. It had been somewhat of a rambling speech, he knew, but it was honest and he couldn't really help himself.

There was a pause as the spirit stared blankly at him.

"Should I call you Spirit?" Bakura whispered haltingly.

"Come back with you?" The spirit whispered back in confusion.

Standing up decisively, Bakura brushed off the back of his pants with his hands and then offered a hand to the spirit on the floor. The spirit stared at it uncomprehendingly. Faltering, Bakura tried to come up with some more words, and then his eyes alit on the Millennium Stone above them on the platform. He pulled away and hefted himself up onto the platform, and then approached the Stone. He hesitated only a second or two before reaching over and grasping the Ring from its place on the Stone. Staring down at it, he tried to place the strange feeling that came over him. He was expecting the Ring to feel like it was brimming with magic like it usually did, but instead there was nothing. Bakura brushed this off and slid back down to the floor below the platform, where the spirit still rested, as motionless as a statue.

Digging around in his pockets, Bakura found a length of string that he would make-do with until he could get something better. He threaded the string through the loop at the top of the Ring and knotted it to make a rough necklace. Then, he awkwardly offered the object to the spirit sitting below him.

"You'll want to take the Ring back with you, right?" Bakura wrung his fingers of his other hand together as he waited for the spirit to respond. He didn't know why he felt so nervous, but then he didn't usually go about asking vengeful ancient Egyptian spirits to come with him out of the Afterlife. Maybe he was just having a rough day.

Finally, a response: "That is not the true Ring. It is only an image brought forth from my memories to taunt me with, like this village. The true Ring is not in the Afterlife."

"Uh...right...yeah, that makes sense..." Bakura swallowed and shifted on his feet again. His hand started to drop to his side, but the spirit startled him by suddenly reaching out and snapping the Item from his hand. His eyes grew rounded.

Placing the Item around his neck, the spirit considered Bakura for another moment. "But I suppose I shall wear the image, because it belongs to me, after all, even in the Afterlife," he informed Bakura, who nodded meekly, not understanding, but not interested in questioning his decision.

"You're coming, then?"

A brief intake of breath. "Your hand, host."

"What?" Bakura had never gone through so many emotions in one day. Before he was startled, then concerned, then nervous, and now confused.

"Your hand, give me your hand. I am weak and cannot stand on my own." The spirit grumbled. Rushing to obey, Bakura held out both of his hands and pulled the spirit up, who staggered and nearly dropped again, but for Bakura throwing the spirit's arm around his shoulder. Heavy breaths came from the spirit, and Bakura felt him trembling against his body. He slipped back into concern for the man.

Ammit did this, thought Bakura. Though he could see no physical injuries, he felt the shadow connection in his mind quivering, and knew at once the emotion was pain. "I'll help you walk there," Bakura told him confidently. This one thing he could do, at least.

And so they walked slowly out of the subterranean chamber, arms around each other's shoulders, and said nothing, even to the shifting shadows in the backs of their minds.

"I am the Phantom King of Thieves, Bandit King Bakura, stealer of souls," said the spirit, introducing himself to his reincarnation for the first time since they had known each other.

Bakura blinked. "Oh."

"You asked if I had any other names to go by," the spirit prompted.

"Oh! Let's see...calling you 'spirit' wouldn't really work, would it? Phantom King...that's kind of a long title. Is it okay if I just called you Thief? Or that's maybe a bad thing to call someone, isn't it..."

And then the spirit laughed truly, for the first time in a long, long while. "No, I like it. Or King. I am quite deserving of that title."

Bakura laughed back, although his was a little more subdued. "You're kind of egotistical, Thief..." he frowned at the spirit.

"I once nearly destroyed the world," intoned the thief, "I will not tolerate insults from my reincarnation."

Sliding his hand over a little to get a better grip on him as they began to ascend the staircase, Bakura replied, "Oh, all right." And he found that he was smiling in spite of himself. Perhaps he could learn to get over the terrible things that the spirit had once done. And maybe, strangely enough, overcoming those bad memories meant first getting to know and understand the person who had caused them. That didn't seem so bad, did it?

Arm in arm, they ascended out of the gloom.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

The thorns in the bushes were pricking his arms uncomfortably, scratching his skin beneath his t-shirt. He didn't exactly know what kind of plant it was; some type of flowering bush with far too many prickling appendages for his liking. It might of had something to do with retaining water, maybe, since he had read somewhere that many desert plants used their thorns to keep animals from ripping them open to drink the water inside. A kind of defence mechanism. It wasn't the most effective mechanism where he was concerned, however, all considering that here he was crouched deep in the bushes with little care for his body being pricked by the thorns. Well, being the Afterlife that it was, the thorns seemed dulled, and even the mild prickling sensation he felt disappeared as soon as he had stilled. So it was no matter for him to ignore the thorns and continue to eye the person far across the courtyard surrounded by a group of friends.

After trudging for many hours (or so it had seemed) through the desert, Yuugi had come across a great city, all complete with souls to occupy it. There was a market, and loud chatter, and people running laughing down the streets, and animals wandering about at their masters' feet. It was an old city, with stone buildings and crude craftsmanship. It was Thebes and Heliopolis and the Temple of Karnak and every structure that had existed in Egypt before their religion had mostly died out, all rolled into one. The people inside appeared content, though he did not get close enough to be able to tell for sure. Uncertain at this new turn of events, Yuugi had skirted the edges of the city and had pressed on through the dunes to arrive near the other side, where a magnificent palace had greeted his sight. Though lacking the protective outer wall that should have separated the palace from the city before it, it was nevertheless still a structural design that Yuugi recognized from his textbooks. The mind link had hummed and the shadows in his mind had sung from it, and so Yuugi had dashed through the streets and had ducked behind buildings, slipping unnoticed into the palace grounds.

Presently he was hiding in the bushes of the garden that ran along the sides of the half-moon shaped courtyard. It was a courtyard perched against the side of the palace wall, accessible only through the arched doorway that led into the palace's inner halls. It had taken a bit of tricky timing on Yuugi's part to wait for a couple of priests to pass before leaping out from behind a pillar and diving quickly into the bushes before the next group of people passed. Thankfully he had not be heard or seen. But now there was a new problem at hand: the person he had been trying to see was not alone, and he could do nothing but wait for him to be. Yuugi supposed he could try and approach him without worrying about the people with him, but he felt reluctant to disturb their chatter, and he felt like he was an intruder upon this world which he had no place in (who was he to bother other spirits finally at rest with his presence?).

He admitted silently in his head that this was really not the true reason for his hesitation. As he watched the exchange between his other self and the people with him, he realized that he was truly seeing his friend for the first time in a completely different light. Here was not the King of Games that he had once been, the excellent duelist and strategist; nor the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, lost in the maze of his soul room with little idea as to who he was; nor the best friend and partner, strong and self-sacrificing, always trying to do the right thing. Here was someone he had glimpsed only briefly in the Memory World, a Pharaoh in his natural element. The gods' precious chosen leader, graced with their voice and favour.

Peeking through the red flowers and green leaves the moment he was sure no one could see him, Yuugi had been stunned at seeing his other self for the first time in years. Resplendent in his red cape and cream tunic and schenti, the Pharaoh stood with arms crossed loosely over his chest as he spoke warmly with the man across from him. He was wearing an assortment of gold on his arms and legs, and hanging from his neck. There was that golden circlet with the Eye that he remembered, flashing beneath his blond bangs. He looked every inch the king Yuugi knew him to be. And yet...

The Pharaoh was so far away all of a sudden, like some unreachable goal that he knew he should never attempt. He was so...kingly, and he just radiated peace and dependability, but there was something else that Yuugi couldn't quite place. It was like he was suddenly an enigma, like there was some secret that made him who he was, hiding underneath all that black kohl and gold jewellery. For the first time since he had known him Yuugi felt with a sickening lurch of his stomach that perhaps he did not know his other self as nearly as well as he thought he did, and that maybe coming here really was a mistake after all. Who was he, but a gamer (however successful and famous) and a child in his other's eyes, who had lived through thousands of years, ruled a country, and saved the world on more than one occasion? He was just Yuugi, and he was feeling very small all of a sudden, just a little helpless at the thought that he had come crawling back to his better half for his help, weak and in need of being saved once again. Closing his eyes tightly, he tried to remember all of the reasons that he'd come, all of the dangers that he and his friends were now facing. Dark Marik with his Rod, when they only had the Necklace. The virtual world which they had no control over. Dark Marik's hostage: a friend close to all of their hearts, regardless of the short time that they'd known him. And the problem with the duel monster poison.

Who am I trying to kid? Thought Yuugi glumly. He opened his eyes again and peered once more through the leaves to watch his best friend laugh over something the other man said. I keep telling myself it's just a problem, Yuugi thought, that it's not as serious as I really know it to be. But I'm dying, and we're not even sure if we can beat him to stop it. We're not sure. Is it so selfish of me to ask my best friend for his help? Even if he looks so happy and at peace here, even if this is where he should be, even if I'm trespassing in the Afterlife? Am I a terrible person for just wanting to see him and say hello, and say how much I miss him, how much I...

And what if he had changed from his time in the Afterlife? Did he remember his gaming partner from so long ago? Did he remember all of the adventures they'd gone on together? Yes, surely he did, because he couldn't have forgotten something so important, something so crucial to Yuugi's life, he was sure of it. But then who was this person standing across the courtyard, looking so untouchable and so surreal? His heart thudded hard with his uncertainty.

His breath caught in his throat as the Pharaoh bid his company goodbye, and the group disappeared through the arched doorway, leaving the Pharaoh to his peace. Yuugi's throat had gone dry in the space of a second, and he struggled with the decision that he now had to make, wishing that he had someone to talk it out with. The Pharaoh began strolling calmly over to the desert flowers planted in a row near to where he was hiding, causing him some bit of panic. He stopped a few meters from where Yuugi was crouched, and then he spoke, nearly causing Yuugi to jump out of his hiding place in shock.

"I thought I saw something dash into the bushes earlier. You may come out now, if you so wish. You need not be afraid." But Yuugi could not understand what he was saying, it was in his native language and he was only vaguely familiar with it.

His heart was positively hammering in his chest. He doesn't know it's me, he thought. What do I do? What should I say? Would he even recognize my voice, not being able to see my face? Something —there had to be something that he could say to ascertain that his friend had not changed. To be sure that he was still the other half of his soul, even if he was wearing fine linen and gold instead of the leather and chains that he remembered him best in. Something...Yuugi steadied himself and took a breath, peering worriedly at the Pharaoh from his position among all of the bushes. He appeared calm, and patient, but curious.

"You have stepped into my heart's domain," the Pharaoh froze, his face going completely blank. Yuugi took another breath, and then said more clearly: "It's game time."

Absolute astonishment registered on his other's face, and then something like recognition, and hopeful light lit up in his eyes. "Is it...can it be...?" He whispered in Japanese, voice filled with emotion.

Yuugi felt his eyes go wet, seeing such a look on the Pharaoh's face, and his concerns melted away. Slowly, nervously, he rose to his feet. And he met the Pharaoh's eyes.

"Hello," Yuugi murmured, afraid to speak any louder lest his voice crack with his desperate hope, his longing to hear the confirmation from the Pharaoh's lips. "Do you...do you remember me...?"

The Pharaoh did not give any spoken answer, but, recovering a little from his shock, strode through the thorny bushes and all at once wrapped Yuugi in his arms. "Partner," he whispered. Yuugi blinked back tears and wrapped his arms around his waist, tugging him in closer.

"Other Me," he whispered back, and then could not help all of the tears that started falling unhelpfully, making it hard to speak coherently. "I...you...you're really here! It's really _you_. And I...o-oh, I missed you, so much," Yuugi buried his head into his tunic and breathed in deeply, breathing in his smell: the faint spicy scent of exotic foods, the cloying scent of incense and herbs, the strong tone of something distinctly Egyptian.

There was the mind link all of a sudden, rubbing carefully at his thoughts, and he opened up to the shadows all at once and without hesitation. The Pharaoh swept in with his own thoughts, his own emotions, and then, there were no words to describe such things that they were both feeling at seeing each other again. I'm here, you're here, they said to each other wordlessly, and that's all that matters. Yuugi let himself be comforted by his other's presence, by the strong fearless person sending loving thoughts into his mind. Of course his conscience had to pick that moment to speak up and remind him of his duties. He tensed and silently wished that he didn't have to say the words that he was going to say.

{Partner?} His other whispered to the shadows in confusion, and they rippled through his mind quietly. He heard the voice in his mind and sighed aloud in misery.

{Some...some terrible things have happened recently, Other...Atem, and...}

The Pharaoh pulled back sharply and covered his mouth with two fingers gently, as though the words had come from his mouth and not from his mind. "Please," Atem whispered into the quiet between them, and Yuugi's eyes widened. Atem hesitated, and then continued, "Please, not just yet. If...it could wait, if this thing that brought you into the Afterlife could wait, Yuugi, then let us just...please." He looked torn.

Absurdly, he noticed the two rings on his slim fingers, the two golden bands with rubies inlaid in them. They suited the flowing cape he wore, Yuugi decided dimly, and wondered idly if he had rings for every different coloured cape he owned. He forced himself to look past the rings, past the golden bands wrapped around his arms, to Atem's deep purple eyes rimmed with black kohl. His heart clenched. "Maybe," he whispered around the fingers on his lips, "maybe, if it could be just for a little while...then maybe it's okay...to forget about it, and just..." he faltered, and murmured to the shadows: {And just pretend that nothing's wrong, so we can spend some time together, for a little while longer...}

The expression that flitted across Atem's face was a mixture of relief and guilt. And then he was smiling broadly down at Yuugi, and using his fingers to wipe away the salty tears that still hung on his cheeks. "There are so many things that I have long wished I could show you," he told Yuugi warmly, grasping both of his hands within his own, "and now I can. All of the wonderful things about my culture, and my life, that I was never able to share with you before. So let us just use this brief moment of peace between us, Partner, and come with me to see it all. Will you?" Yuugi squeezed his hands gently, and nodded. Beaming with pleasure, Atem suddenly let go of one hand and began dragging him forward out of the thorny bushes with his other. "Come, then! There is no time to waste. Oh, the games I can introduce you to! Do you still enjoy such things, Yuugi?" He tossed a brilliant smile over his shoulder, suggesting that he knew exactly whether Yuugi still enjoyed such things or not.

"I...yes, of course, I mean, I love games." Yuugi stammered, overcome with all of his emotions and in a daze (he was really here with Atem, and Atem was happy to see him, and they were going to play _games_ together). It was almost unbelievable that all of it was happening, and he couldn't help the delighted laugh that suddenly burst from his throat. "I'd love to see everything that I can of your world. I'm sure it's wonderful," he told him happily.

Atem squeezed his hand. "I will show you as much as I can, Partner."

xXx

He did not feel particularly tired from trekking through all of the sand, but he stopped every once in a while nonetheless to allow his other half some brief rest. The King of Thieves panted wearily into his shoulder, leaning heavily against Bakura and looking quite annoyed over it. Bakura was concerned for him, and longed to ask whether he was okay, and whether he could do anything to help, but it seemed to be an unspoken taboo between them. He could not ask whether the thief was okay, because that would be implying that he wasn't, that he was weak, and that he needed help. And Bakura was sure it would only make him angrier to hear these words fall from his lips. So he fretted silently and stopped often to let the thief rest from walking. There was no thank-you for this service, of course, and Bakura did not expect there to ever be one.

Looking ahead, he counted the set of dunes and remembered which one the door lay at the foot of. Unfortunately they would need to climb up three dunes, and he worried over whether the thief could handle it. His eyes were closed now, Bakura could see, since there was no purple flash of irritation beneath his white locks. Tightening his grip on his shoulder, the thief drew in a sharp breath and Bakura took the silent signal to stop walking. They did not sit down, but stood standing, with the thief glancing anxiously over his shoulder at the image of Kul Elna behind them. Well, his face was expressionless, but Bakura felt the shadows in his head do a flip and attributed it to anxiety. He too glanced over his shoulder, and then asked timidly, though knowing the answer, "Ammit doesn't usually let you leave the village?"

The thief's attention snapped back to him. A dry laugh escaped his lips, and Bakura did not like the sound of it at all (and perhaps it was because it reminded him suddenly of the thief's delight over his past conquests). "Not quite, dear host." He heaved a shuddering breath, and coughed suddenly, several times. Bakura trembled in his shoes and found that he'd let a helpless noise escape his lips, causing the thief to give him a critical look. I can't help it, Bakura thought, I'm scared of this thing that's reduced you to this. You, who used to be so strong, who even the Pharaoh couldn't defeat, so long ago. "Quiet," the thief sighed, "no, I've never been able to leave the village before. Every time I try stepping out, I find myself suddenly several feet back, as though the image has moved to trap me there. Yes...that is so. But now...why, I wonder..." the thief mused.

Bakura sent a reassuring thought across the mind link, and the thief sent him an amused glance. Then, still panting, he raised his hooded head to glare coldly into the distance. "What is beyond," it was not so much as question as it was a demand for information.

"Well, over those three dunes, at the bottom of the last one, there is a door that I came through to find you. Um, it leads...into another sort of Afterlife, I guess...I don't really know, but we can find our way back to the...living world from there, I think." Bakura stammered.

Drawing in a deep breath, the thief inclined his head towards Bakura, which he had been taking to mean 'onward'. He started walking forward, keeping a supportive grip on the thief as he walked beside him. They came at last to the first dune, and Bakura gave a worried look at the spirit stumbling beside him, who was still staring coldly into the distance and so didn't notice. Finally, they began to climb. The going was slow, and many stops had to be made. Bakura's breath was even but the thief's was ragged and heavy, though he appeared angry and determined. Inside his mind, Bakura could feel the shadows of the mind link crash against one another. He tried to make sense of it, but his way was blocked: the thief had arranged an intricate series of mental barriers that he could not and was not willing to penetrate.

Eventually, they made it past all three dunes and came to the bottom of the third. They stopped again, the thief rasping for air, leaning nearly all of his full weight against his other half. He stared with eyes half-lidded at the rectangular piece of stone hanging impossibly in the air before them. "What do the hieroglyphs say on the door?" Bakura asked curiously.

There was a pause as the thief read the writing, and then decided whether or not he was interested in telling Bakura. Speaking haltingly for lack of air, he said, "Only those with pure intentions may use the door,"

Alarmed, Bakura said hastily, "Oh. Well, don't state your intentions then, okay? Just stay quiet, maybe." He was granted another amused look from the thief. Bakura could not imagine why the spirit found him so amusing all the time, but he didn't dare ask. "Okay, then. Shall we?" Shifting his grip on his shoulder, Bakura started forward at a nod from the spirit.

Their steps caused a bit of an echo from the stone as they approached the door, though more so from Bakura's sneakers than from the thief's flats (which were probably made for sneaking around). Letting go of the thief with one hand, he reached out and tapped the stone as he had done before. The door did not swing open instantly this time, but rather slowly, as if contemplating the two before it.

Bakura, who was a little innocent and carefree, light-hearted and kind. Honest. Gentle and loyal, even extending that loyalty to someone who had caused him harm, to a soul stealer (and a man who had once been fused with an evil demon, no less).

The Thief King beside him: cunning, malicious, and intelligent. Perhaps a little egotistical as well. Headstrong and devious, and completely untrustworthy. There was something possessive about the way he leaned against the man he stood beside, as if caring nothing for his comfort. He was taking all of his offered help with an air of distaste, but still smirked secretly at the man who was obviously upset over him.

At length the door finished its swing, now having opened completely. It would allow these two entry, if only because the compassionate one wished hopefully for it, having unconsciously devoted himself to his other's safety and freedom.

They walked through, and the door shut behind them.

If the thief was surprised over the change in scenery, over the brighter sun and cloudless turquoise sky, he did not show it. But his back did straighten ever so slightly, as if awaiting some threat to approach them for having stepped through the door. Well, Bakura thought, we did kind of leave his punishment behind without anyone's permission...maybe the gods will be mad at me...

Shading his eyes with one hand, he looked across the almost unchanging landscape to plan out a route that would not be so hard on the thief, who was still recovering from having his soul being partially destroyed. He was not sure exactly where he should be heading, but perhaps the best thing to do for the moment would be to retrace his steps across the desert, which he could still roughly see in the sand. Sooner or later they had to come across a way that would lead them out of the Afterlife. Well, there had to be a way, since it did not make sense for him to be able to stay in a world for souls, while he still had a working body that was quite a long ways away from dying on him.

"When we get back," he told the thief cheerfully, "I'll introduce you to some asabi gullash. It's this really awesome Egyptian pastry, and you'll like it, I'm sure,"

Narrowing his eyes as if analysing the statement and figuring out whether it was a lie or not, the thief stated carefully, "_If_ we get back, dear host, I will once again lack a body to eat this pastry with. I will be residing in yours,"

There was a pause as Bakura considered this. "Well," he said, in the same careful tone that the thief had just adopted, "maybe we can work out an agreement so that we both can have some freedom, instead of before, when you just took over without asking?"

He received no response.

"And then you would also have to agree to not hurting anybody...or me...or stealing things...or threatening people. Maybe you can try and be a little nicer, too," Bakura suggested.

"..."

"And then, also, there's this problem that I forgot to tell you about, and everyone's really worried about it, and I want to try and help out, even though I might not be so useful." He added as an afterthought.

A sigh. The thief answered in an exasperated tone, "Explain." A command.

Taking a deep breath, and then halting when he realized he had no idea where to start, Bakura looked over at the thief warily. His other bared his teeth in a menacing grin, causing him to swallow nervously. "Um...well, I don't really know how to say this but...Dark Marik's back—"

"HIM?" Bakura started, flinching at his tone. He nodded, once. The thief was now grinning widely. "We do have some unfinished business, he and I..."

"Uh..."

"I think I would rather like to see him again..."

"Uh, Thief..."

"This is turning out to be a really good day, I think. Wouldn't you agree, dear host?"

"Oh...oh, dear..."

xXx

Yuugi chewed thoughtfully on a date while he waited for Atem to finish his move. They were playing ancient Egypt's version of memory tiles, and though currently Atem was winning, Yuugi had picked (he thought) a pair of the most difficult tiles and so he should really be winning instead. It had been difficult to play for him, as each tile contained a hieroglyph etched on one side, and he was having trouble remembering exactly what each character looked like. Some of the pictures were too similar, and he had thought he had a match a few times over the course of the game, only to have Atem point out a slight difference between the tiles. Spread out over a bunch of cushions, they sat across from each other, helping themselves to the platter of fruit that someone had brought in for Atem.

The tiles were really worn, with chipped edges and dulled paint. Yuugi could see that his friend had enjoyed this game many times. "After I sealed my soul in the Puzzle, all of my games and personal items were buried along with my body in my tomb," Atem explained to Yuugi.

"So..." Yuugi wondered aloud, "all of the things that you have now in the Afterlife are things that you had while you were living?"

Flipping over a finger length tile, Atem read the character and smiled, before quickly choosing another and showing the pair to Yuugi. He removed the two tiles and dropped them carefully into a little jar by his elbow. "Another pair for me," Atem boasted playfully. Yuugi shook his head in amusement. Maybe I'd be doing better if I could only relate to the letters on the tiles, thought Yuugi. "You are only losing by three pairs," Atem informed him, "really, you should be congratulating yourself. The language is not your own, after all." Yuugi contemplated the tiles and tried to remember which row the bird character had been in, and if there was another near the far corner...or if that had been a different bird. Were the wings raised or folded...? Atem fought a grin at his partner's silent debate, sure he would not be able to pick a pair. "All of the things that are buried with us are taken to the Afterlife with our soul," Atem finally answered his question, continuing their conversation, "which is why those with very few things still retain that status in the Afterlife, Yuugi."

He finally decided to flip over the tile in the third row, and frowned at the bird design. These wings were most certainly folded. Now, that one in the corner... "Yeah, I noticed that as I came over here. It's like an old city from long ago...with all of the things that one might need to live, all of the markets and houses and livestock..."

"You thought that animal souls would not be granted an Afterlife?" Atem questioned curiously.

Swallowing the last of his date, Yuugi shook his head. "No, I remember reading about that. All of a family's animals are buried with them when they die, right? Because animals share the same Afterlife as humans do?" There were three tiles in the corner not yet turned over. He was sure it was not the farthest one. Now, the left one or the right?

Atem seemed surprised. "I did not know you had read about my culture,"

Faintly embarrassed now, Yuugi flipped over the left tile and smiled when he saw a very similar bird to the other one. And looking again...yes, they were definitely the same. He dropped the pair into his own jar by his knee. "Well, after...I mean, after all of the time we spent together...and all of our adventures, I guess I was just really interested in learning more about Egypt. I'm currently taking some courses in it."

"I am honoured that you would spend your time learning about my country," Atem said seriously.

Smiling more widely now, Yuugi asked, "Have you been really happy here, Other Me?"

"Yuugi, it is —oh, how can I describe it— it is an everlasting paradise," Atem said warmly, "there are endless ways to occupy my time, endless people with whom I have become reacquainted with that I remember from so long ago. The days and nights maintain a constant perfect temperature, and there is no bad weather. No marauders or thieves or anything of the like: everyone here is content and no one wishes anyone else harm. I am finally able to spend time with my dear friends who died in the battles of long ago. All of my priests...my cousin, Seth...and my father are here. As well as all of the other pharaohs of the past. We live in harmony here." His eyes drifted from the game tiles to the ceiling, lost in happy memories. Yuugi's throat clenched with the knowledge that he was disturbing the obvious happiness of his friend.

His friend caught his sad look and immediately tried to comfort him, though not knowing the reason for his upset. "Yuugi, please, be at peace. Leave your sadness behind. Enjoy your time here," Atem murmured softly, troubled.

The young gamer looked up and forced a smile and a laugh. "Ah —sorry. Well, it's your turn, Atem. And you only have a two pair lead now. I'm gaining on you. And with not that many pairs left..." he teased.

Atem's eyes returned to the game tiles. He picked two at random, no longer thinking about the game. They were not a match. "Your turn,"

All of the tiles that were left lay near Atem, and not Yuugi, and so it caused him to shift on his cushion and lean over. He was about to flip over a tile when Atem gasped and grabbed his hand suddenly. Yuugi shot him a confused look. "Other Me? What is it?" He followed Atem's gaze down to his ankle, where his pant leg had rolled up slightly to reveal the mottled purple and blue skin. "Oh," Yuugi muttered despondently.

His friend had his pharaoh face on all of a sudden (or so Yuugi thought of it), the hard mask that was used to dishing out orders and being obeyed. But he had to ask the one question that Yuugi did not want to answer, that he could not answer, lest it sway his decision any. "How bad is it?"

Yuugi shook his head. "Just..." he pulled his hand away and leaned back into the cushion, sighing, "just let me tell you about everything else first, okay? About what brought me here. And then, maybe, if you'll answer a question of mine...I'll tell you then, okay?" After I ask you if you'll help save Noah and help defeat Dark Marik, once and for all. Then I'll tell you, Yuugi thought.

"Yuugi..." the Pharaoh said warningly.

He shook his head again. Yuugi thought, I have to be strong now, and say this right, so that he'll understand that it's not about me and that it's about everyone else (_their_ safety, not mine). "It won't take long."

"...All right." His tone made it clear that this was the one and only time that he would be giving in on any matter. Yuugi understood.

Outside, the perfect sun began descending beyond the lost horizon, sending the world into a starlit night.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"So will you come back...?"

How helpless he looked. Wide purple eyes, shimmering with regret and sadness. Such misery he was undergoing, due to the reappearance of someone he had failed to get rid of. It was him who had sent him to the Shadows so long ago, but now Dark Marik had returned. He was the one who should be feeling responsible for his re-emergence, not his other, not someone who'd been nothing but a pawn in their last Shadow Game! He was the one at fault...! And this was the reason for his birth, was it not? Wasn't he the one who had been chosen by the gods to rid the world of all evil? Wasn't it therefore his duty to finish what he had started years ago: defeat Dark Marik once and for all? And Dark Marik was a product of Marik's worst feelings, his creation. It was his duty to correct the mistakes of the people he governed (he still thought of the tomb keeper as being under his command, this man who had lived for the sole purpose of his memory retrieval). And he was nothing if not a just and proud king, a man devoted to the protection of his country and everyone he cared about. If he turned away...he would be denying everything that made him who he was, everything that he stood for and lived for. He would be denying all of his values and beliefs.

Here was this person that he had stood beside for years as a spirit, protecting him, caring for him, and working with him to right all the wrongs that had hurt them. He was his reincarnation at the very least, a man whose life was simply another path that could have been the Pharaoh's. They had different forms of the same soul. But he was more than that. There was no other word to describe it than partner, a word that somehow managed to contain everything that he meant to him. All of their shared years together had changed Yuugi for the better, and had changed him, too. They'd saved lives. They'd been on dangerous adventures. And they'd discovered a lot about themselves and each other along the way.

Looking into those sad eyes, uncertain but hopeful, caused his heart to twist in ways he didn't know it could before. Yuugi didn't know about how much he had missed him. He didn't know about how everyday he would think 'Yuugi would enjoy this' or 'Yuugi would laugh at that' or 'I wonder what Yuugi is doing right now'. Of course he could never admit it. The Afterlife was supposed to grant him eternal peace, and it did, certainly, but he had been wishing that his partner could enjoy it with him too, though he did not wish him dead. These were the guilty thoughts that ran through his mind that he had buried deep down, trying to ignore them. Yuugi couldn't possibly know how happy he'd been to see him. How much he'd just wanted to forget the world and saving it for _just one moment_ (couldn't he and his partner have any time for fun at all?). Now that he knew of all of the things that Yuugi had told him, though, he couldn't ignore any of it. Regardless of whether it meant leaving his eternal peace behind. There would be time for that later...

Atem would sacrifice his life, if only it meant the world could be a little safer.

"Yuugi," he answered, "do you even have to ask?"

His partner's eyes filled with tears.

Past the desert land of the perfect world created for the resting souls, past the twinkling stars and the shining moon, there lay a different dimension. Between the worlds of the Afterlife and the world of the living, the great gods and goddesses of Egypt looked down on their chosen Pharaoh and his reincarnation. They now had the answer they needed to open the Door once more.

And so they opened wide the Door for the Pharaoh and for the other half of his soul, letting the great stone slabs split apart right in front of the two in the room, who scrambled to their feet in shock at the Door's sudden appearance out of thin air. The half of the Eye on each slab glowed brightly. Then, there was enough space for the two to pass through, and so the Door let loose its strange forces and sucked the two right into the white light in the space of a second. The stone slabs slid shut, and then the Door winked out of existence.

Beyond, past the extensive city that housed the millions of souls that had been granted a peaceful life, deep within the nearly never-ending desert, another Door was opened. Two stumbling people, one a spirit, the other of the living, jumped back in amazement. They shielded their eyes from the bright light spewing forth, and then were suddenly pulled off of their feet and sucked through. The Door closed and vanished.

Now, at last, the two halves of each soul had been reunited. Finally, the disturbance that they had felt in each person would soon begin settling, and their souls could begin healing. For perhaps there was a reason a soul should never meet its reincarnation...perhaps the meeting would only cause undue pain later on. Once having met something that the soul could recognize as belonging to it, as being a part of it, the shock of the separation must have caused some terrible hurt. Their favoured Pharaoh deserved a peaceful life, and after having saved their world, they would indeed do something in return for him. As for the Thief...he had now lived through their punishment for a few years, and perhaps...just maybe, that was punishment enough. It was their hope that his better half would cause some much needed change in him. They were not above giving second chances...

There was one final soul which had been torn in half and so was suffering because of it. This was the task that had been assigned to the Pharaoh, whether he knew it or not...to reunite the pieces of this final soul...

The soul of the deeply suffering tomb keeper.

xXx

The bright light was abruptly coming to an end, and before him, he could see an ever widening square of darkness. "Atem!" Yuugi shouted, but though his mouth moved no sound escaped, and he started to panic. He could see nothing of his best friend, and he screamed in his mind, desperately searching for their link. It was there, and it hummed. Though the feeling was quite distant, as though he was very far away. Yuugi flew forward, being pulled by a strong power towards the darkness. He curled in upon himself and covered his head with his arms, bracing for some sort of impact.

There was a sudden rush of information as his senses came back to him, and then he could hear himself, could hear how loudly he was shouting as he was whipped through the opening and thrown across the stone floor. Behind him, the light snapped out as the Door slammed shut.

"AH!" There was the pain in his leg, searing and hot and blinding, and he struggled to breathe. The cold of the air brushed against his bare skin and he forced his eyes to take in his surroundings: he was lying a few feet away from the Door in the Chamber, and it was night. Lengthy shadows spread across the stone floor. But there was a light behind him...a lantern of some kind?

"Yuugi!" Someone yelled, and he twisted his head with some effort, relieved at seeing Tristan leap to his feet from where he had been curled up against the steps leading to the top of the platform. He had obviously been keeping watch, as numerous blankets, a light, and food wrappers lay scattered at his feet as he bolted up the steps, still fully clothed, towards Yuugi. "Ah, man! You're alive, you really made it back!" Tristan dropped to his knees beside him and lifted him up into a tight hug, "I'm so glad!"

Yuugi coughed. "T-Tristan, I can't b-breathe," Tristan's eyes widened and he immediately released his tight grip, though still keeping a steady hand on his shoulder to allow him to stay sitting.

"Your injury —ah, I'm so sorry, I totally forgot, are you okay?" Taking several deep breaths, Yuugi managed a weak smile and a nod. Coming back from a world where no pain existed was a deep jolt for his system, and he tried to overcome the waves of pain and not fall unconscious.

As quickly as the Door had opened and spewed out Yuugi, it opened again, and with a half-choked scream and a blur, Bakura flew out and landed with a cry near them. The Door slammed shut once again, and another boom resounded throughout the space. The figure that was their friend lay motionless where he had fallen. "Bakura!" They both shouted, one with anxiety, and the other with confusion.

Bakura picked himself up off of the floor with a groan. "Oh...dear...I am never doing that again," he huffed.

"You okay, buddy?" Tristan cried out in concern. He shot Yuugi a glance in his arms, "He was sucked in right after you," he said by way of explanation. Yuugi started.

Gripping his head with a moan, Bakura returned, "Well, I've a massive headache all of a sudden, but other than that, yes, I am quite all right, thank-you." He jerked his head towards them, as if abruptly realizing something, and was relieved to see Yuugi there. Bakura crawled over. "Yuugi! I'm so glad to see that you're all right, too," Yuugi nodded, his head whirling far too much for him to be able to speak.

Reaching into his jean pocket, Tristan dug out a cell phone. "I'm calling everyone else," his fingers tapped out a number and soon ringing was heard sounding through the phone. "Don't worry, you'll both be back safe and sound in the hotel soon enough, 'kay?" He decided not to mention the obvious absence of the Pharaoh.

Neither mentioned their reluctance to leave.

Yuugi could feel the mind link tugging at his mind, and he longed to go in the direction that it offered to him, and it stung to know that he couldn't, that he wasn't strong enough at the moment. For that was the one thing that he had failed to tell his other self (but he conceded to himself that he really hadn't the time to tell him, after all the Door had sucked him through right after Atem had said yes). It didn't help that he was still feeling guilty regardless of that fact. Sure, he was in pain, but who knew what had happened to the Pharaoh?

Bakura could feel his own mind link itching in the back of his head —he was close, _so close_. The feeling was originating from the deep hole behind the mesh fence, the hole which used to be where the Stone had been. He felt the sand in his mind whirl about for a moment, and then there was a distant whisper, or a murmur through his mind. He concentrated on it and tried to understand the sound.

{Dear host...}

It was so weak, and for a moment he was at a loss for the reason (how far down was the Thief, no, how badly injured was he from Ammit?). Bakura considered telling them, right in that moment, if he could just explain what had happened, because it would only be the right thing to do...

He felt he had betrayed them deeply, bringing back someone who had done so many awful things. But how could he possibly face them all and tell them that he had done what he had? He had to do it...the Ring spirit had looked so depressed in that own personal hell of his...he couldn't just leave him there. Bakura wasn't that sort of person. Even if he had nearly destroyed the world (as he had so boasted to him), Bakura couldn't just walk away. He'd never forgive himself if he had...if he'd ignored a person in need.

I'm so weak, Bakura thought miserably.

{Come...come find me...}

xXx

The next day, the group of them drove out of Luxor in two vans and headed in the direction that Yuugi felt that they should go, in search of the Pharaoh. Yuugi had given an explanation of what had happened beyond the Door, and it was a relief to the others to find out that the Pharaoh had indeed been brought back, though in what condition, none could say. Bakura had told his own story as well (though it was a severely edited version, and his stomach had twisted as he had told it). Luckily (or perhaps suspiciously? Ishizu had given him a long, thoughtful look), no one had questioned him too deeply about his adventures, being more concerned about the Pharaoh.

It did not take the Ishtars too long to figure out where exactly they were heading, and so they altered their course slightly and changed roads, taking a winding path that lead deep into the rocky cliffs, far beyond the dig site. It took a few hours, but finally after much anticipation they arrived.

Both vans rolled to a halt at the end of the road. They were at a dead-end as far as the road went, with cliffs surrounding their sides and in front of them. However, there seemed to be a cave entrance at the foot of the cliff in front of them. On closer inspection, they could all see that it was man-made: the entrance appeared to be perfectly carved through the stone. Everyone got out and approached the entrance (with Yuugi on Odion's back once more).

"I've been here once before, in the Memory World," Yuugi told Ishizu, who was about to explain their location, "along with Tristan, Joey, and Téa."

She was only mildly surprised. "But have you explored all of the Pharaoh's tomb?"

"No...at the time we were just searching for his name, and we were in a bit of a hurry..."

Ishizu nodded. "His tomb is very extensive. There are numerous chambers, false doors and hallways that end abruptly. Not to mention all of the other traps, such as pikes being shot from the walls, and moving statues in the image of the Pharaoh's guards." A slightly worried expression crossed her face for a moment. Joey reached out and patted her shoulder reassuringly.

"Hey, we know all 'bout the traps. We got past the statues and the pikes before, didn't we, Yuugi?"

Yuugi hesitated, and shifted uncomfortably. "We only got past the traps that led to the room containing his name...we never went anywhere else, so we don't really know what else awaits us in his tomb..."

Joey frowned. Scratching his head, he suggested, "Well, how about all of us who know about the traps go in, split up, and search for the Pharaoh? We'll be able to find him quicker that way, huh?"

Scowling, Kaiba shot at him, "And how are you even sure you'll be able to find him at all, Wheeler? He's returned to the world in his spirit form, so only Yuugi will be able to see him, is that not correct?" There was a moment of silence at this remark. Kaiba turned to Ishizu. "Therefore, it makes sense to only bother sending in Yuugi with one of you, who know his tomb the best since you are his tomb keepers, after all. And that way, no one else is put at risk." He caught a sour look from Mokuba, who seemed disappointed at not being able to go into a real tomb.

"Then it will be me who goes in with him," Marik said thoughtfully, "I have all but memorized the layout of his tomb, with every room and trap, since I was the one who inherited the tomb keepers' legacy. I'll lead you through the tomb safely, Yuugi. Just point the way." He approached Odion, who carefully transferred Yuugi to his brother's back.

Looking a little grateful, Yuugi thanked Marik and threw a smile over his shoulder at the others. "We'll be back soon enough, okay?"

Ruffling his hair, Joey said seriously, "Just take your time, buddy. Don't try an' rush 'cause you're worried about him. We don't want either you or Marik hurt,"

"Look who's talking," Kaiba drawled, and Joey shot him an annoyed look, still bothered over his badly executed rescue attempt.

No more words were spoken. A large flashlight was handed to Yuugi, who flicked it on with his thumb. Darkness scattered from the entrance to the tomb. Making sure he had a firm grip on Yuugi, Marik strode forward. They entered the tomb.

The first passage was long and narrow. The ceiling was low, and Yuugi figured that he could probably reach out and touch it if he stretched. He aimed the light ahead of Marik so that he could see where he was walking. The walls were smooth and unmarked. There was really nothing that would make one suspect that they were in the tomb of a pharaoh. As they continued on, however, the air in the passage became less stale and colder, suggesting they were about to enter a wider, more open space. And then all at once the passage opened into a great, wide chamber, and any suspicions that they might have had about it being a pharaoh's tomb were nullified.

There were many pillars supporting the ceiling high overhead. These walls were not unmarked as the ones before, and contained many hieroglyphs and pictures, telling all of the stories important to this particular pharaoh. All of the stories about the gods and goddesses, and children's stories with the intent of teaching morals and values. And of course there were stories about the pharaoh himself, about his family and his life growing up. In this chamber his name was not mentioned.

Ahead of them, on either side of the chamber, there were two towering statues of snakes. They were curled around two pillars, and their heads were extended outward to glare menacingly at the entrance. Their mouths were opened wide, and Yuugi could see long forked tongues and fangs made of stone. The only thing not made of stone were their eyes, which looked like giant rubies, although he could not imagine precious jewels that huge. "Beyond the two snake guardians are two rooms that serve as tests for intruders. The final room once contained the Puzzle box and the pieces of the Item inside. I assume your grandfather has told you this?" Marik questioned.

"Yes," Yuugi responded quietly, "and beyond the room where the Puzzle was once kept are more secret chambers, and one which holds his name. That's the way we took to get it," Yuugi lifted his other hand off of Marik's shoulder and pointed to their left, to a dark passage in the wall before the two snake statues. He whispered, "I'm getting the feeling that we should be heading in that direction,"

They headed off. Yuugi was a little worried that he was burdening Marik too much by needing to be carried (how could he jump out of the way of traps with an extra weight on his back?). It was clear, however, that Marik knew what he was doing. They weaved about the corridor, with Marik occasionally stopping to consider whether he might need to skirt the wall at a certain point, or crouch a little lower when passing a particular set of carvings on the wall. The corridor branched off several times, with Yuugi choosing the directions they took with a bit of hesitation. Sometimes Marik would choose the direction for him, knowing already that it would be a dead-end. Walking for some time but not too far (the corridor switched directions several times), they passed a few chambers which they did not enter, and came at last to one final turn.

Raising the flashlight, Yuugi penetrated the first few feet of darkness. "Yuugi," Marik sighed, "there is nothing down that way save for another wall and a carving of the Eye. Why would the Pharaoh's spirit wander down this path, which holds no interest for him?" He glanced back at Yuugi, who was silent with thought. There was an abrupt change in the corridor.

The light dimmed and died somewhat; though, perhaps it was not the light but rather the lengthening of the shadows along the floor that caused the darkness to grow deeper. The Egyptian characters on the walls faded and grew indistinct. There was a sound like a harsh, choked gasp —he could not be sure who or what made the noise, but it might have been him. He felt something like a slow yearning gnawing at his insides, which was maybe why he decided to say what he did. "Marik, please, set me down. I want to go down the corridor." Dark, grey mist gathered behind them, cutting them off from the previous passageway. Something froze inside the tomb keeper, and he could do nothing but stare, stunned, as Yuugi slid off of his back and collapsed heavily against the nearest wall. And then the grey mist swallowed him whole.

"Yuugi," Marik spoke softly into the corridor, his words strained and descending like cinderblocks into the air. There was a clatter: the flashlight rolled into view, and Marik picked it up from the ground. "Come back, it's dangerous to go alone!" He called into the blanket of mist. There was no answer.

Behind him some distance, Yuugi thought he heard Marik's level baritone, and briefly wondered how far he had walked since the voice had sounded so unclear. Keeping his hand along the wall to guide him in the right direction (Marik had not mentioned a branching passage down this way, but it would be best to keep track of where he was regardless), Yuugi stumbled in pain down the hall. He was blind without the flashlight, which he had dropped accidentally in surprise at the sudden mist that had come around him. Well, it might have been useless anyway due to the mist. Yuugi wondered how thick it was.

It was most certainly Shadow magic; there could be no other explanation. Was it the Pharaoh's doing? Or was it another trap in the tomb? Because surely the Pharaoh's high priests had made sure his tomb had the best protection they could offer, and so they could have endowed the tomb with Shadow magic. Probably. He wasn't too certain about how far Shadow magic could go, but it did not seem impossible. Although...Marik had not warned him about this. Unless he didn't know...

His hand abruptly brushed against a corner, and Yuugi stopped. Panting a little, he reached out with both hands and felt the wall in front of him, just inches away from his nose. Indentations revealed a clear pattern underneath his fingertips, though he could not see a thing. The smooth curve across the wall, and the curves above it, could only be the carving of the Eye of Wdjat that Marik had mentioned. The ancient symbol of protection against evil. Yuugi's breath sounded harsh in the gloom. He traced the pupil of the Eye with his index finger.

"Pharaoh...are you here somewhere? Why can't I find you? Where did you go?" Yuugi mumbled, disheartened. The throbbing in his leg was intensifying from all the pressure he was putting on it. "Atem," he cried out, and collapsed to the floor, no longer able to hold up his own weight.

Shifting, he made to lean his back against the wall in front of him so that he could wait for Marik to find him once again. But his body closed on nothing but air, and he dropped backwards with a gasp onto the floor that should not have existed, breathing in a sudden rush of cold, dead air.

The wall with the Eye had disappeared.

Breathing heavily, Yuugi propped himself up a little onto his elbows and rolled onto his stomach. He squinted into the darkness before him, but could see nothing at all. If anything, the darkness had grown even deeper. Now, with his heart pounding hard enough to block out the pain in his body, Yuugi crawled forward blindly and stretched out his fingers, feeling his way across the floor.

He came across a low structure, and feeling with his hands up the smooth side, he found the edge of the top of it. It probably would reach his knees if he had been standing. With some effort, he gripped the edge with both hands and dragged himself up to sit on the ledge. Yuugi continued to explore the surface with his hands, and felt a dip in the middle, like a dish carved into the stone. He encountered something rough in the bottom of the dish, and thought it might be filled with stones. Or perhaps...

A little excited, Yuugi felt around further and found another stone dish beyond the first, with some sort of oily liquid inside. Drying his fingers, he dug around in his pockets for something that could work. Joey sometimes kept a lighter with him, but he wasn't here at the moment, and so he would have to make do. He came up empty. Thinking for a second, Yuugi ran over his options, and remembered the bronze ring that Odion had given him before. He tugged it off from around his neck and gripped the ring between two fingers. Then, with a quick motion, he struck the hard stone beside the dish containing the liquid, hoping for a spark.

On his third try, a miniature yellow spark flitted across the stone, and brushed against the surface of the liquid. The small spark became a flame in an instant, completely covering the liquid fuel in the dish. Yuugi found the edges of the dish in the stone, and hefted it up, pouring it onto the stones that he now recognized as coal. The fire followed, and wrapped around the new fuel source in an instant, allowing Yuugi to set the dish with the liquid back down into its hollow space. He could now see that the coal dish was larger than he had thought, and it extended from his spot on the ledge to the corner of the room nearest to him on his left. It then continued down the wall, hit another corner, then down the far wall before hitting another corner and continuing up the wall on Yuugi's right. In this way, the fire now lit up the whole room, and he was given a better look at where he was.

Yuugi was absolutely stunned.

It was a large room, about half the size of the chamber at the entrance. The ceiling was not terribly high. The walls were not adorned with hieroglyphs, but did contain incredibly detailed images of duel monsters, with swords and claws and staffs raised, as though standing guard in the room. There was such a mess of things in the room, and Yuugi gazed in wonder at all of the things now greeting his vision. Wardrobes and chests and great wooden boxes, all intricately carved and designed. A wide bed, all lavished with expensive looking sheets of white and cream and deep red. There were tables and chairs and statues, of all sizes. He was familiar with some of them (the cat goddess, the sun god, made from pure gold and painted in detail). Masks littered the tables and the floor, like something out of one of his textbooks: the sorts of Egyptian masks with the long beards, gold paint, and draping head garments. There were clothes spilling out of drawers and flung over chairs, and capes and robes and shoes on the floor. The jewellery was even more extensive, and he could see pieces of it peeking out from drawers and under clothing. Yuugi had never seen so many necklaces and rings and bracelets all in one place. Lush rugs and animal skins covered the floor. Weapons of all shapes and sizes (and armour to go with such things) littered the space as well. Intermixed with all of the statues of gods were toys: game boards and pieces, little figurines, puzzles, and coloured wooden blocks. And yet, this was only just the beginning of everything in the room. Yuugi was only at the entrance to it, and beyond more furniture he could see that the mess of things all piled into the room continued all the way to the back of the chamber.

Sliding down onto the floor once more, Yuugi began to make his way through the room, weaving about the many objects that he came across, and using these as ways to pull himself forward. Many times he stopped, picking up some small item to examine it, feeling the weight of it in his hands. Then, he would put it back exactly as he had found it, very conscious of his intrusion into a room that had previously not existed...and a room that was very well guarded by the paintings of powerful duel monsters on the walls.

At one point, Yuugi saw something that made him nearly tear up from the memories. A golden dia diank, propped up against a mask. He reached out tentatively to touch it, but then looked beyond, through a mural of glass between two chests. The outline of some long box showed through the myriad of colours, past an archway into another, dark room beyond.

Pulling himself around one of the chests, Yuugi found himself in an area mostly empty of clutter for a couple of feet, though surrounded on three sides by it. Crawling to the second room's entrance (the burial chamber, Yuugi told himself, and this must be the antechamber), he peered into the dark. There was another dark archway beyond, which as far as Yuugi knew would lead into the treasury, although what could be contained in such a room that was not already contained in the antechamber he did not know. He was distracted by the centre feature of the room. In the middle of the space, resting on a thick carpet of brilliant blue, lay a sarcophagus.

It was quite large, and painted with exquisite designs. From above, it was made to look like a sleeping pharaoh, complete with a mask. The arms lay crossed over the chest of the figure on the lid. In the middle of the chest, there was a golden carving of an upside down pyramid, with faint lines running through it as though it was made of many smaller pieces. Many hieroglyphs were etched onto the sides of the sarcophagus. At the foot of it, there was a canopic chest made of white marble with a gold base. It had an open top, and four canopic jars could be seen resting inside. The lids of the jars (each resembling the head of an ancient god) peeked out from the top of the chest. More ancient writing was carved neatly into the sides of it. Yuugi paused to catch his breath.

Was it possible that the Pharaoh's spirit was trapped inside his own sarcophagus?

He drew closer and leaned against the side of the heavy stone. His fingers found the edges of the lid, and Yuugi (with eyes wide with anticipation and stomach knotting in anxiety) began to push. Muscles trembling with the effort, and sweat making his hands clammy and slippery, he pushed as hard as he could against the lid and prayed that he would not find what he thought he might.

The lid gave way.

Bit by bit, it slid to the side, and Yuugi continued pushing until quite suddenly there was enough space for him to pull himself up higher and take a look inside. He frowned to discover an ornately designed wooden coffin inside, with another lid to push aside. The lid took some effort, but thankfully not as much as the stone had. The latches creaked with disuse and finally the lid lifted away, sliding off of the coffin to rest with a clunk in-between the stone and the wood.

The mummy was entirely wrapped in bandages, covering everything from the toes to the head. The smell that leaped from the coffin was stifling and _dead_, and Yuugi thought he might be sick from it. He gagged and started to pull away, hands reaching up to clamp over his nose and mouth. But his eyes caught something that made his stomach do another painful twist: the linen-covered fingers twitched on top of the mummy's chest.

Crying out something unintelligible, Yuugi rushed to tug sharply at the bandages on the face of the mummy. "Atem...Atem! Other Me!" The sound echoed across the chamber. He pulled away a layer of linen and tugged even more. There: was that a patch of golden brown skin underneath the white cloth, or was it just a trick of the lighting?

Another layer was removed. Yuugi pulled again, frantically, and then suddenly the nose and mouth and eyes were revealed, looking exactly as they had looked thousands of years ago. Yuugi gasped.

Atem opened his violet eyes, disoriented, and then sucked in his first breath of air in over thousands of years. He began to cough violently. "Ah—!"

Crying silently, and tugging off more layers, Yuugi freed his head and neck from the wrappings to allow him to breathe easier. His arms came next, and then he clutched his friend's fingers tightly, unable to go any further from his shaking. Atem's breath evened out, and he looked at Yuugi in amazement and confusion and every emotion in-between. "I'm so sorry!" Yuugi sobbed, "I left you in here all alone...I had no idea you were trapped like this, suffering, and I should have come sooner! I'm so sorry!" He rubbed at his eyes uselessly.

Pulling himself up a little, Atem did not answer immediately, as he was having trouble taking everything in. He looked down at his bandaged form, and at the stone above, half-covering him. "I am...this is my..." he spoke haltingly, voice rough from disuse. Yuugi glanced at him and then to the lid he had not completely removed.

"H-hold on! I'll just...one second, okay." He let go of his friend's hand and pushed again at the stone lid, forcing it further back. Then, no more pushing was needed: the lid's own weight caused it to fall off of the sarcophagus and slam down onto the floor. Yuugi winced slightly from the sound, but Atem did not react at all. Swallowing, Yuugi forced himself to stop crying and get a hold of his emotions, even though his friend was —well— _alive_. He reached in with both hands and took Atem by the shoulders. "Let's get you out of there, okay? You're not...you're not...dead...anymore, so, please..."

The Pharaoh moved jerkily and clumsily, as though not knowing what to do with his limbs. Leaning into Yuugi's hands, he pulled himself up out of the sarcophagus and slid down to the floor beside him, leaning back against him. He looked down in awe at his hands, clenching the muscles and pressing his fingertips together, before taking Yuugi's hand in his own and intertwining their fingers together. Yuugi offered him a small smile. "I am alive," Atem murmured.

"We all thought...that you'd come back as a spirit...yet, somehow...here you are," Yuugi whispered to him.

He jerked his head up and looked at his partner. Yuugi's face was a mix of emotions, but he squeezed Atem's hand in reassurance and Atem squeezed back. "I feel as though I have woken from some strange dream...a dream I have been dreaming for many, many years..." he told Yuugi, who listened with wide eyes, "so please, do not feel guilty for not coming sooner, Partner. Trapped? No, I do not think that that was indeed the case. I was...sleeping, waiting for your arrival. I suffered no pain in that sarcophagus, Yuugi."

Yuugi took in a shuddering breath and closed his eyes briefly, before opening them with a much wider and truer smile. "I'm so glad," he said sincerely. Atem smiled back. It occurred to him suddenly how cold it was in the tomb, and Atem started to shiver. Then he let out a quiet laugh, the low timbre making Yuugi look at him in confusion. "What...?"

"Yuugi!" Atem started to laugh even more, "it is rather cold in this tomb of mine, would you not agree?"

"I..." Yuugi's brow furrowed in further confusion, and then he realized what his other was thinking, "you're alive. Oh! You can feel those sorts of things now, can't you? I didn't even realize —oh, Atem, I'm so happy for you." And then he started to laugh too, causing all of his previous tension to totally melt away. Looking over his friend's bandaged form, he snapped his fingers abruptly, and Atem stopped laughing and turned to him curiously. "Come on, let's find something for you to wear. You've just got piles and piles of clothes stacked in here, so it shouldn't be too hard. You can't go walking around in bandages, after all. People will look at you funny, Pharaoh," he teased.

Atem raised an eyebrow. "They would not dare," he returned with a serious tone.

Yuugi laughed again.

It took Atem some time, but he finally managed to find an outfit that he could wear out of the tomb. He was revelling in each small movement he made, feeling his limbs stretch and his muscles contract for him as they had not done for some millennia. Atem was only mildly bothered to find himself stumbling from time to time, and knew it would take a little while yet to finally get used to his restored body. He was absolutely delighted at all of the objects that he came across, and found himself pulling open drawers and unlatching chests to search through all of his possessions. He chose to throw on his red cloak; it was the thickest and the tomb was cold. There were too many things that he wanted to take with him, as each held some sentimental value to him. In the end, he returned to the sarcophagus with only a minimal amount of jewellery on (the gold crown with the Eye he refused to leave behind), where Yuugi was waiting politely.

His partner was peering with some amount of disgust and amazement into a canopic jar, whose lid he had removed. "Is there something wrong, Yuugi?" Atem strode up to him without tripping, a small achievement which he praised himself silently for.

Yuugi started and replaced the lid, looking up at him with a sheepish smile. "Your...uh...organs are gone from the jars..."

There was a pause. "Oh." Atem considered how he was feeling. His stomach gurgled in the silence, and Yuugi's mouth dropped open into a silent 'o'. The organs were missing from the jars, indeed. "Well, I should hope so. I certainly cannot be wandering around with no stomach, now can I? Or no lungs? Indeed, how have I been breathing so far if I did not have such things?" His eyes twinkled with mirth. He was incredibly grateful for the feeling of air expanding his chest, and he sucked in a deep breath to accentuate the feeling. Everything was working as it should.

Letting out a small huff of exasperation, Yuugi gripped the edge of the canopic chest and pulled himself to his feet. His breath came out in short gasps. Alarmed, Atem dashed forward and wrapped his arms around Yuugi to support him. "Your injury," Atem realized, and turned a stern look on Yuugi, demanding the answer that he had been denied earlier.

His partner sighed sadly.

"Shadow magic, Other Me. I'm dying."


	19. Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"What is taking them so long?" Joey grumbled impatiently, pacing in front of the tomb entrance with his arms crossed stiffly over his chest. Kaiba only looked up for a second, and then returned to typing out something on his Blackberry. Knowing Kaiba, thought Joey, it's probably some detailed business something-or-other that he can't be bothered to leave alone till later. As if we don't have something more important to be worried about at the moment. "I'm gonna punch both their heads in if one of them comes back with any sorta scrape," he muttered.

Smoothing over another layer of sunscreen to the pale skin of his arms, Bakura gave Joey a distracted glance and returned to his own stressed thoughts. He was not entirely too concerned about Yuugi or Marik, if truth be told, as he had the utmost confidence in both of their abilities to escape harm. They'd been through much more difficult situations than a trap-laden tomb, after all. Actually, what he was thinking about was quite different. He couldn't get the Thief's last words to him out of his head, his plaintive cry for help. Or maybe it wasn't plaintive at all, maybe it was demanding and annoyed. He hadn't really heard him very clearly. It was probably the latter. The Thief didn't usually request things; he just demanded them. Or took them. Without asking. Bakura sighed and returned the lotion to his shoulder bag.

Sitting against the wheel of one of the vehicles was Mokuba, jamming the controls of his handheld game viciously and muttering under his breath. Ishizu and Odion stood in the shade created by the vehicle beside him, somewhat bemused by the teen's attitude, but mostly concerned over their brother and friend in the tomb. It had been nearly an hour since they had entered.

Only a few minutes had passed since Joey had ceased his grumbling, when suddenly there came from the entrance Marik with Yuugi on his back. Everyone stopped what they were doing and peered curiously at their friends, whose expressions were so stormy with mixed emotions that no one was quite sure what to say. Ishizu approached her brother. "It is good to see that you did not have any problems with navigating the Pharaoh's tomb," she smiled, and took back the flashlight from Yuugi's hand. She wanted to ask about the spirit that they had gone to retrieve, but was unsure of how to phrase the question. Looking at Yuugi's face, her smile faltered, and she whispered in fear, "What...is wrong?"

There was a moment of hesitation. Marik seemed to be unable to figure out what to say, and this oddity only increased the sense of foreboding in the group. Then, frowning a little uncertainly, Marik gestured with a tilt of his head to the darkness behind him. "See for yourself, sister," Marik intoned, and stepped away from the entrance, allowing Yuugi to slide off of his back and sit next to Bakura.

Kaiba put away his Blackberry.

It was so quiet that they could actually hear the sound of light tapping against the stone in the tomb's corridor. Bakura and Mokuba jumped to their feet. There was a figure approaching from within the darkness, slowly becoming more visible. The shape was vaguely familiar, but no mind save two could comprehend why that was so.

The sun dipped behind a light strata layer of clouds, dimming their view further for a little while. In that time, the figure came to the last several feet of the corridor before the tomb's exit. And then the sun slid out from behind the clouds, and warm rays of light lit upon the deep red of the figure's cloak. Bakura's breath caught in his throat, remembering his trek across a vast desert, and so he was wholly unprepared for the sight that greeted him then. This was a different cloak.

Pharaoh Atem stepped out of his tomb in his newly restored body, removed from his own sarcophagus barely half an hour before. He looked like an image out of one of his own hieroglyphs, with his schenti, tunic, cloak and jewellery. There was no dia diank attached to his arm, and indeed no Puzzle around his neck, but all the same he stunned everyone with his presence.

Looking at each of them briefly (taking in the changes since he had last seen them, the new maturity in each of their faces), he cleared his throat and said the only things that he could have said in that moment. "My dear friends...I have returned. And I promise to lend you my aid in this new battle that we fight."

Shock greeted his words.

"You...holy...what the...ATEM?" Joey choked out.

Atem nodded slowly, wondering silently what his friends were thinking. Once they had recovered from their amazement, perhaps they would be upset with his return. They had undergone so much effort to give him a peaceful afterlife, after all, and so it would only be natural for them to be hurt from the sudden turn around he had taken. Unknowingly, of course, but he had taken it nonetheless. Marik still looked like he was struggling with the idea, and the Pharaoh could not blame him. He was a man whose life had been completely bound to his, to his memory retrieval and to his subsequent passing on to the Afterlife. What was the tomb keeper thinking, now that all of his life had been meaningless to some extent, and here Atem was, and with his dark half returned as well? What sadness could he be suffering through, thinking that all of the troubles that he had gone through were only to happen all over again? And they had not discussed what they might do now that he had returned, which is to say what they would do once he was no longer needed to save them from Dark Marik. How would they send an obviously living person back to the Afterlife? They could not, could they? What were the gods of Egypt thinking...?

"I...yes, it is me, Joey." Atem returned gently, worried about his reaction.

Still more silence. It was Joey who broke it, rushing forward within a second and flinging his arms around Atem. "Man, it really _is_ you, isn't it? No way! Ah, am I ever glad to see you, buddy! And look at ya in your crazy outfit," he was practically shouting, and laughing, and spinning the shorter Pharaoh around in a circle, before he stopped and dug his knuckles into Atem's head. Joey grinned goofily. "Didn't I tell you that you weren't really leaving us, Pharaoh?" He said fondly.

His eyes widened at Joey's remark. Now the ice had been broken. The others came forward as well and crowded around him, speaking all at once, all delighted and confused, and stoic (Kaiba and Odion, and though their eyes showed their tender emotions, he doubted that they would ever admit to them). Atem smiled and hugged them back, staring in wonder at the incredibly forgiving and accepting and wonderful people that surrounded him.

"It's so good to see you! You have no idea how much we've all missed you since you've been gone, man, even Kaiba, but just don't expect him to say that he did," Tristan took his own turn in messing up Atem's hair with a laugh. He could barely believe that the Pharaoh was standing right there before him: over the years the memories had twisted and turned him into something a little more extraordinary, a little less human and a little more like a fantasy image. To feel the very real maroon locks between his fingers caused Tristan's throat to clench up in some unknown emotions, and he was struck with the idea that the fantastic person was far more human than he had ever thought that he was.

"He was one of the very few duelists worthy of a match with me, that is all. It was a shame to lose such an excellent opponent," Kaiba scoffed, but there was no hard frown marring his face, and he did lean down slightly to accept the brief hug from the smiling Pharaoh. The first thought that came to mind for him was a memory, one of the Pharaoh crushing the darkness out of him after their duel together. It had been so inconsequential to him for these past years, and so he couldn't quite be certain why the memory was bothering him now. Here was the man who had helped him to become a better person, and a better brother as well. Perhaps that was it: this excellent leader and strategist in front of him had been the one to break all of the miserable chains weighing him down. He had restored the Seto existing beneath all of the pain and anger, beneath all of the need of wanting to be the best. And he could not be more grateful. This is one thing that I still I have not paid you back for, Seto thought. But make no mistake: a Kaiba always repaid his debts.

His younger brother was far more talkative. "So cool! You were the guy who helped save me so many times over the years! And now we finally meet face to face. I mean, those last moments when you left didn't really count. So anyway, thank-you for everything that you've done for me and my big brother. You know, I wanted to go exploring in your tomb, but he wouldn't let me. Too many ancient traps, he said. Can you tell me what it's like in there, because I've never—" Mokuba was speaking quickly and was beaming from ear to ear, and Atem was amused to find him still the same as ever, albeit a bit taller and certainly more matured in his features and in his voice. Mokuba looked on in wonder at the strangely dressed Egyptian in front of him, clad in material fit for a king, with a golden crown encircling his forehead. So this was what he truly looked like, while not wearing Yuugi's form. This was the Pharaoh his brother and the others spoke so highly of. He saved the world many times over, Mokuba thought in awe, and he saved the lives of lots of people, too. Now I have the chance to finally get to know him better. So now maybe I can understand the sort of person he is. How he managed to do all of the things he did, when he looks so...real...

"So Téa's not here cause she's with my sister in another city away from Domino, but man, will she be happy to see you, buddy," Joey explained excitedly, and Atem was unable to break in to tell him that Yuugi had already told him the details of what had happened thus far. Joey was having trouble calming down, still caught between shock and delight and not knowing how to slow down. This is too crazy, Joey thought. Any moment now he'll up an' disappear on us. Or I'll wake up and this'll all have been a dream. Oh, man. We'll definitely beat Dark Marik now, no doubt about it. So he'd better watch out. Atem's gonna take him down; one, two, three.

"Oh, well, this is a little startling, but you do know that I am happy to see you, Pharaoh. I mean, we didn't really know each other very well, but you saved me from the Ring spirit many times, and I've always considered you my friend," Bakura put in his bit and received a reassuring look from Atem. Trying to breathe evenly and not stammer, Bakura was in a state of swirling emotions, not quite certain if he should really be speaking to this apparition. Because that was what he had to be, wasn't it, since it couldn't really be true that the Pharaoh had been resurrected into his former body. The dark skin, the sharper, more angular features, and the finely toned muscles in his arms could not have come from any other source though (and certainly not from Yuugi). As difficult as it was to accept the breathing creature before him, Bakura supposed he might as well, all considering the sort of day he had had before. He had travelled through the Egyptian Afterlife for a short time, after all. This...well, it was not as strange as that...

"My Pharaoh, your return in this form is indeed unexpected, as I had not had any visions of such. But I must say that I am truly happy to see you once again, though we meet once more under harsh circumstances." Ishizu's voice was soft and calming, but her face betrayed her true emotions and she shared them openly. Incredulity mixed with delight. I have always respected and honoured you, Ishizu thought, and I hope that I can aid you now in any way I can. It is a glorious day indeed when a Pharaoh who has been as close to the gods as he has returns to the Earth. And she did feel suddenly that the day was much brighter than it had been previously, as though the gods' blessings had been bestowed onto all of them with Atem's return. This is destiny, Ishizu thought with a sudden rush, his body has been returned to him for a far greater purpose than I can see, and so I will accept it. He'll change the world by his presence here —he was meant to, I just know it.

The second Ishtar beside him clasped his shoulder awkwardly and bowed his bald head. "We are ever in your service, Pharaoh. Ask anything of us, and we will answer. I too am glad to see you again, though I hope you will explain what has happened." The black dye of the hieroglyphs crinkled on his face as his brow wrinkled and his cheeks pulled back into an uncertain smile. Marik suffered deeply because of you, Odion struggled silently. Because of what our family stood for, because of what we were bound to accomplish regardless of our own desires. Everything that we were was for you. But I...have slowly learned to accept it all. I respect you. You helped to save Marik from his darker half. But the memories do not disappear so easily. And now, you come back, right when the wounds were nearly healed and our past was behind us. Do you know that you're bringing up every memory Marik ever had of the tomb keepers' underground home, just by standing there? And looking at us with those deep eyes of yours? Odion's heart thudded painfully, and he had to pull back, distrusting the thoughts flooding through his head. His face remained almost perfectly blank, though his jaw twitched with the effort of trying to keep his emotions in check.

Atem looked all around him, and his eyes fell on Yuugi, watching him with a warm look on his face as he leaned against the black rubber of a tire in the shade of a vehicle. Though his face was relaxed, Atem did not miss the way his legs were straightened out in front of him, propped up a bit by a backpack that Marik had placed under them. My dear partner, he thought with abrupt misery, is in such pain. His face fell and he answered Odion. "I will tell you all that I can, Odion, but I am afraid to say that I may be just as much in the dark as you are. I know very little of how I came to be this way, in this form." With that, he gently pushed through the group and returned to his partner's side, kneeling down to grasp Yuugi's hand and squeeze it in his own. "How are you feeling?" Atem asked softly.

The atmosphere changed instantly. Coming in closer, the others stopped near the two and waited for Yuugi's response. Their smiles had faded and the danger of the moment returned to them quickly. This was no time to be rejoicing, but rather a time to be deciding on new courses of action, and they remembered that suddenly. Yuugi was slow to respond, and he sounded guilty when he did, which had everyone frowning. "Um, not really good. I mean, it doesn't really hurt, but it's hard to move..." he sighed.

Marik dropped to Yuugi's side and looked at him sharply. "You put a lot of pressure on your legs when you were moving around like you were before. But now...have you lost all feeling in your other leg?"

Yuugi's eyes were very round, and he looked down at himself and then back at Marik in poorly concealed fear. "Yeah, I guess so." He swallowed.

Odion cut through the bleak thoughts in Yuugi's head and quickly gathered him in his arms, motioning for Marik to open the van door. "We'll head back to the hotel. We need to set up another cleansing ritual. Regardless of when all of you want to return to Japan, at the moment Yuugi cannot." Then he was setting Yuugi down in a seat, and pulling a bag out from under another, getting out vials of herbs and various other things. Marik turned to his sister.

"We can drop you off at the dig site as we go, all right? Or did you want me to oversee today's explorations?" Marik questioned with an exasperated air, as though the reality of their duties was really being a bother and could wait until later (but some part of him knew better).

Shaking her head, Ishizu walked around the second van and pulled open the driver's door, having trouble looking away from the gods' voice come back to Earth, standing so ethereally in the sunlight. "No, that will be quite fine. Please see to...the Pharaoh...and to Yuugi and make sure that they will both be all right. Now, come, everyone. We must return. And Kaiba, will you see to it that your plane is ready?" Not another moment was spared for chatter, and they all started to climb back into the vans to head back to the city, partially still in shock and partially in unease and anxiety.

"Of course. My jet can be prepared very quickly. It was refuelled the moment it landed, and so there is not much preparation that is needed. I'll call my crew immediately." His hand had already whipped out his Blackberry, typing out a phone number with his thumb.

No one said anything of the words that hung in the air after this.

"_...will you see to it that your plane is ready?"_

"_I'll call my crew immediately."_

_We're running out of time._

xXx

The day really had gotten much hotter, as though Ishizu's thought of the day being brighter had been more of a prediction than a passing thought. Bakura found that his feet were tender and sore, and he told himself chidingly that he really should try and keep himself fit so that he would not have this problem in the future. I have never walked so much in my entire life, he thought tiredly, first all of the time in the Afterlife and now picking my way across all of these unstable worksites. He shielded his eyes from the harsh glare of the sun and peered at Ishizu, where she stood some distance away. She was examining the stone frame of the doorway that the excavation team had revealed by blasting away some large boulders two days before. The desert dust kicked up and obscured his vision for a moment, and he coughed out the grit that found its way into his mouth. It was a lucky chance that he was here at all, really. Everyone had been so preoccupied with the Pharaoh that they had not been too interested in why he wished to oversee the day's progress at the site with Ishizu. And she had allowed him to come, if only out of some small delight that he too was as interested in ancient history as deeply as she was. Well, his father was the curator of the Domino Museum, he had told her, and so perhaps it was some of his influence.

Of course it was nothing of the sort.

He knew very little Arabic, which was giving him even more reasons to peer distractedly over some heavy machinery and vehicles while Ishizu talked animatedly with several workers about the new directions that they could now take with their explorations. It was the entrance to one of the priests' tombs, they were supposing, but only through entering the ancient passageway could they be sure of whose exactly it was. It would take some very careful planning before they could attempt this, he knew. If the priests' tombs were anything like the Pharaoh's, then they too would be heavily laden with traps. Bakura imagined that this was probably not the only thing that they were talking about. The find of the doorway meant that it was possible that the other tombs were close by. And this was a crucial point.

Picking irritatingly at his sweaty t-shirt, he dug around for his water bottle in his bag and was bothered to see that it was half-empty. Bakura took only a sip before replacing it. He would need it in his climb down the pit in the Chamber, after all, since he hadn't the slightest idea how deep the hole went.

Coming to a decision, he made his way over with only some hesitation (the language sounded so different from Japanese or English, how was he to tell a tone of irritation from a tone of excitement?), and came to a halt near Ishizu. She glanced at him with a brilliant smile —her day had just gone from great to even better, he guessed, what with the Pharaoh and now these tombs— and interrupted a worker before he had the chance to speak. "I'm sorry I haven't been able to show you around, Bakura—" Ishizu began.

"Oh, no, please don't be concerned over that. I know how excited you are over this. I was just wondering if I could go exploring a little around the excavation site, since you are busy at the moment...?" He asked cautiously, his fingers on one hand clenching tightly around the strap of his bag slung over his shoulder. Any moment now and that Item will tell her of the danger of letting me go, Bakura thought anxiously. His eyes could not stop flickering down to stare at the powerful Necklace strung delicately around her tanned neck. It was positively glittering.

Ishizu only smiled again. "Of course! Just please be careful, as some of these areas are unstable, with holes in the ground and rocks that could tumble down on top of you at any moment. And though my Necklace would warn me of such a thing, I may not be able to reach you in time. So keep a safe distance away from blast sites and so on, all right?" She was eager to return to her discussion with the workers, he could see, and so Bakura kept the conversation short.

"Yes, I will. Thank-you." He gave her an abrupt wave and turned, striding swiftly away, looking for all the world like an interested tourist. The workers were likely glad to be rid of her annoying companion, who had been wasting their precious time. Bakura smiled wearily.

He knew which direction to take, but took no shortcuts on the slight concern from Ishizu's remark, weaving about all of the machinery and workers instead of through the rubble strewn blast sites. The electric elevator was where it had been the day before, and he stopped above the enormous roofless Chamber below him, straining his ears for sounds of clanging or chipping or chiselling. Nothing. There didn't appear to be anyone working on the restoration of the Chamber that day. Of course, they were probably more concerned with the possibility of more tomb entrances near the first and had everyone over at that site. Bakura glanced about him and saw that there were no workers paying any attention to him, and so with a single breath he entered the elevator and hit the switch for 'down'.

There was the noises of the grinding of gears and the engine whirring echoing eerily in the great room, but it was almost certainly not heard by the workers nearest to him, due to their chatter and their own machines that they had going. Wiping the sweat beading on his forehead, Bakura advanced across the room and up the set of stone stairs, coming to a stop before the mesh fence. And there he listened.

{...}

The sound was so faint, but the shadow cat in his mind stirred and stretched, strengthening the feelings he was getting of being _close_ and _here_ and _right here down here now_. Evidently, the Ring spirit had felt his presence and was attempting to reach him. Bakura understood. He moved the strap of his bag to the opposite shoulder and felt around in it to pull out a flashlight. Clicking it on, he pushed his hand through the loop of thick thread that he had tied around the bottom of it, and tied the loop tight. There. Now for the fence. Wrapping his fingers in the metal mesh, he got a good grip and quickly climbed over to the tiny ledge on the other side. With a single step, he would topple over the edge. This thought sent his heart racing.

The flashlight lit up a good portion of the first several feet, and with the sun high overhead, he was easily able to find a foothold and slowly lower himself down into the hole. Gradually, fretfully, he began to climb down. The earth that made up the walls of the hole was quite rocky, but more sandy than muddy, and Bakura found his hands covered in the fine particles within seconds. This was making it difficult for him to keep a good grip on the rocky protrusions, and it only increased his worry.

All of the light from the sun above faded with each foothold down, and he glanced up continuously to make sure that he could still clearly see the daylight above. He did not want to descend so far down that he would not be able to see the sun completely, and it worried him that he really did not know how far down the hole went. His breath was becoming heavy and laboured, and it was with great effort that he maintained his closeness to the wall of the hole. If his body leaned too far away, he was sure he would lose his grip. With each grope for a foothold below him, Bakura disturbed sand and dirt and rocks, which clattered down into the darkness below and whose noise was lost to the pounding in his ears.

Bakura glanced upward again, feeling with his foot below for a suitable protrusion that could hold his weight while he considered how far he had come down. Several metres, at least. It was indeed a deep hole. Another bunch of rocks slipped down into the darkness below him, and his breath caught for a moment, thinking that he had kicked away the foothold. But his foot bumped into the rock once more, and with a relieved breath Bakura took another step down and settled his weight onto the rock.

It collapsed.

The loss of the foothold was so sudden and unexpected that Bakura scrambled for a moment with a cry, having just been in the process of moving one arm down to find another handhold. His fingers slipped; with a choked gasp Bakura fell into the darkness.

A few metres down there was a ledge, and he landed with a half-strangled scream on his feet, but then lost his balance and dropped onto his back. His body went into overdrive: the blood was pumping so quickly that he could feel his veins pulsing, and his breath was coming in short bursts. Bakura lay there for many minutes, and eventually stopped panicking from the fall. With a groan, he pulled himself into a sitting position and got a good look at the ledge.

If he had landed on his feet differently, he might have fallen forward instead of backward, and would have tumbled over the side of the ledge. This realization sent him shivering, and he pulled back to lean against the wall, thinking that perhaps he could just rest a bit before continuing.

His lower back bit into something hard, and Bakura winced in pain, reaching around to remove the rock that was digging into his skin. But his fingers grasped something much smoother than rock, and he pulled it out with a bit of an effort (trapped by some dirt as it was). Something powerful and electric stormed through his hand, some darkness that was all too familiar, though it stopped abruptly as though realizing a mistake. He held the object up to his flashlight.

The Millennium Puzzle was incredibly clean looking for having been trapped under rock and dirt and sand for all the years that it had. His fingers traced the lines of each piece of the Puzzle, feeling them rather faintly, and Bakura remembered how fragile the object was. One smash against a hard structure (a dueling platform, for example), would shatter the Item instantly into its many pieces. And yet...it had remained perfectly intact. Completely assembled.

"I am getting quite tired of all of this impossible nonsense," Bakura mumbled softly to himself. Now he knew why Kaiba simply denied all of it. It was easier than accepting it —because then you had to live with all of the questions of _why_.

He slipped the Puzzle into his bag with some worried thoughts (how would he return it to Yuugi or to the Pharaoh when he clearly should not have been down here in the first place?) and inched his way off of the ledge to climb even lower. This time his going was much more careful, and he kept his gaze on the wall, determined not to look up if it would distract him and make him lose his concentration on his task. Due to his absorption in finding handholds in the wall, he found to his surprise that his foot suddenly hit hard ground again that was seemingly a much larger protrusion that just a foothold. Another ledge?

Hardly daring to breathe, Bakura felt around with his foot and then cautiously lowered himself onto the rock below. It seemed to support his weight, and so after a while he let go of his handholds and turned cautiously around.

He had hit the bottom of the hole.

Right next to him, half-buried under rock and dirt and sand, the Millennium Stone lay like a great holy artefact, shining gold under the white glare of his flashlight.

There!

{Ah...}

Bakura hastened up the sheer rock laying broken and jagged at the base of it, and removed with some care the precious Ring that was held fast in its particular hollow of the Stone. And here was the sparking of powers that had not existed in the Afterlife: shadows of the Shadow Realm, jolting up his arm and through his heart like electricity (only far more deadly). The Ring apparently recognized its old bearer. Bakura swallowed uncomfortably. And the very moment his fingers brushed the gold, the faint presence in his mind grew abruptly _sharp_, and he felt the familiar feeling of something settling deep into his consciousness. It was almost like a ghost, sliding through his mind. The Ring spirit had been brought back into his body once again. There would no doubt be a hallway now outside of his mind room...and a second door, menacing and dark. {Welcome back,} Bakura murmured exhaustedly.

The shadows rolled across the link in response, but otherwise said nothing.

Fishing about the bag for the leather cord that he had brought with him, Bakura slid it through the loop of gold and placed the Ring over his head, tucking it beneath his shirt. The spirit was probably still weak from the damage that he had suffered, and Bakura was not about to bother him. Indeed, he would rather the spirit not wake up for a reasonably long time, as he would no doubt wreck all sorts of havoc once he was fully rested and healed. Regardless of Bakura's wishes to have some sort of agreement between them.

He'll be very angry once he hears about the Pharaoh, Bakura thought as he started to climb back out. I still haven't told him anything about what has happened in his absence. Oh, what am I going to do? Just look at the awful mess I've gotten myself into. This wouldn't have happened if I had just not gotten sucked into the Afterlife. Nobody else aside from Yuugi got sucked in, and that was only because he was standing right next to the Door. I wasn't even doing anything wrong. And now there's no telling what kinds of things he's planning. He wants to get back at Dark Marik, I'm sure, for sending him into the Shadow Realm that one time during the Battle City tournament...

And he'll most likely want to get back at the Pharaoh too...

He nearly lost his grip on the rocky wall when a terrible thought occurred to him, something that he had not even noticed while collecting the Ring from the Stone. Alarmed, he jerked his head down, letting go with one hand so that he could point the flashlight this way and that. But he was not mistaken: the space was empty save for the Stone and some rubble. And there, on the Stone, where three other unique hollow spaces should have been filled with three Items, instead they were empty. What does this mean? Bakura thought in horror and amazement.

The Eye, the Key, and the Scales were all missing.


	20. Chapter 20

Chapter 20

"Hmm...this, I think. Red suits you. And here."

"So Yuugi _does_ own a pair of jeans."

"Ha ha. Probably his only pair. What're you giving me that look for, Pharaoh? You know it's true." Tristan dumped the clothes into Atem's arms along with the stack of towels, soap bottles, and hair products.

The Pharaoh looked down at the clothes he was borrowing from Yuugi and scowled slightly. Joey and Tristan appeared highly amused by his behaviour. "I still do not see why I must change. What is wrong with my current attire?" He adjusted his grip on all of the things in his arms as his two grinning friends led him into the bathroom, with Tristan leaning down over the tub to turn on the water. Atem stared in amazement at the steam that came from it. Hot water, he knew, was entirely common in this time, but with his memories returned to him Atem could not help but marvel at how easy it all seemed.

Joey was pulling all of the things from Atem's arms and setting them on the countertop. "Sorry, man. Modern Egyptians don't wear that stuff anymore. You'd look more, um...normal in Yuugi's clothes. I mean, you wouldn't look like you'd just stepped outta some ancient painting. Which is kinda important." He laughed at the disappointment in Atem's face.

"I wish to keep the—"

Tristan cut in. "The crown will have to go, man. Sorry. The bracelets you can keep wearing, I think. And the anklets and the earrings. But just not the crown." Atem nodded solemnly.

"Now, this and this and this are for your hair. This one first," Joey explained, pointing at each bottle in turn. Atem kept a straight face. It had been very important in his time to keep clean, but surely there was a point when it became ridiculous? "Don't give us those looks, buddy. Yuugi's right, you do smell like death. No offence. I mean, you were dead. Uh. I mean...your body was kind of rotting...and then it wasn't...but you were wrapped up in all of those..."

"So, we'll just leave you to it, then." Tristan interrupted with a sharp look at Joey, and pushed him out of the room. The Pharaoh was sulking. "Just turn the tap to the right to shut off the water, okay? It should be at the right temperature." And then the door clicked shut behind them.

It was nice to have some time to himself, to think over everything that had happened and sort out all of his feelings and thoughts on the matter. Atem's shoulders dropped and he let out a sigh. And then he sighed again. Air. Out of his mouth. He was still delighted with the feeling. Smiling softly now, he set about arranging all of the absurd products his friends had given him beside the tub. Perhaps a hot bath did not sound so bad after all.

He was still a little bothered after learning about the excavation that was still going on, despite the fact that the team had discovered two of the Items. Atem would have thought that the Ishtars would have shut down the explorations after such dangerous discoveries, but apparently not. They had a contract, Ishizu had explained. But she had assured him that they were keeping a close eye on the dig team. Atem very much hoped so. There was no telling what catastrophe would occur should all of the Items be removed from the Chamber. Out in the world once again, each had the potential to drive people mad with desire to possess their power. This inevitably led to destruction. With Ishizu, the Necklace was safe...but the Rod, now it was in much more tainted hands...

Dark Marik was an unpredictable enemy. He was no longer attached to his lighter half, and as such, his thought processes became much more undefined. Who was he without Marik? How did he usually think, act, and respond —in short, what was his personality like? He had always simply been the manifested anger and hate of Marik before all of this, but now he was an entirely separate being (he couldn't be so flat anymore, could he, he couldn't just be anger and hate, surely he had other emotions?). Nobody could be totally sure of the sort of person he was, now that he had left his former body and mind (and soul) behind. This meant that they had to be extra careful. There was no telling what he would do.

Atem was especially concerned about the fact that he had resided in the Rod for some time. He was not attached to the body that he had currently. Was it possible that he could simply switch hosts if he should tire of the one he was residing in at the moment? Hand the Rod off to someone else and take over their body from there? If that were true, then they had many more things to worry about than he had previously thought. Dark Marik might be anyone —anywhere— at any time he chose. Possibly.

If only he had the Puzzle, then he might at least feel somewhat more protected. But that was impossible. It had fallen deep into an endless hole in the Earth when the Chamber had begun to collapse, as the others had told him.

Still...two Items had been removed from the Chamber now...

It was possible...

xXx

Night was descending on Luxor far more swiftly than Bakura had thought it would, and it sent another wave of panic through him. He stuffed the rest of his granola bar into his mouth and threw away the wrapper, bustling through the hotel room and picking up all of his stray things. The clothes he folded hurriedly, the toothbrush and hairbrush he jammed into the suitcase with little care. His heart was beating quickly, and he tried to stop his hands from shaking so much (it was impeding the folding).

{...Ah...}

Don't wake up, don't wake up, Bakura prayed as he chewed and swallowed the rest of his snack. But it was no use: the spirit was regaining his health at a startling rate, and he flitted through his host's consciousness more often now, murmuring blurry images and leaving garbled thoughts behind him. Yet with each pass through Bakura's mind, the images and sounds grew more clear. It was only a matter of time before he worked up enough energy and strength to fight for the control of his body. There was no use deluding himself any further, anyway. No matter how much he wished to have some sort of agreement between them, the spirit of the Ring would no doubt ignore his feelings and then proceed on with his own plans (as he always had).

I'm such a fool. How could I ever think that I might be able to understand him? Bakura thought sadly. And now I must leave everyone behind. In order to protect them from my...mistakes...

He still wondered if he could have left the thief behind in that underground chamber, if he could have just turned and walked away after hearing about every horrible thing that he was going through. And despite knowing and feeling and hearing the blurry thoughts from the thief now (he was scheming something awful, he just knew it, though he could not work out what it was), Bakura did not think so.

Glancing about the hotel room once more to make sure that he had missed nothing, Bakura zipped up the suitcase and paced over to the bed. The Puzzle lay sparkling on the pillow (so silly looking, one would never believe that it held an ancient force so powerful that it could make the entire Earth quake). He ran his fingers through his hair, stressed. What was he to do with it? A pad of paper lay opened with a pen beside it on the side table, waiting for his words of goodbye and some brief explanation for his actions. Bakura had started to write something—

_Please: forgive me._

—but he couldn't figure out what to put after that, and so the rest of the page remained blank. Instead, when he should have been deciding on what to say to them—

{...Dear host...}

—he had written out a letter to his sister, forcing himself to go slow and print his letters neatly, so that she wouldn't sense the anxiety he was having. Even after all the time that had passed, Bakura still found himself unable to give up writing to his sister. It was an obligation, somehow, a duty that he took more seriously than work. Perhaps it was because it was more important to him than work.

{...Where is this...}

The spirit was _asking him a question_. He realized with a shock that he had no more time to lose. His fingers found the pen and he scribbled down a few more words on the paper before grabbing his suitcase and his shoulder bag and bolting out the door. The hallway was quiet, and he was reminded of a similar hallway in a hotel in Domino: silent, housing a twisted maniac whose room was so dull it said nothing of its owner's actions. Bakura picked up his pace, trying to block out the swirling sand in the back of his head. If he could just wait a little longer, just a little while longer...

It was to his great relief that he came across none of his friends in the hotel as he sped out the door and found the taxi waiting for him, just as they had promised over the phone. It was a service specifically for tourists, and though they spoke no Japanese, they did understand English (which Bakura was rather fluent in, having lived in England for a short while). He allowed the driver to take his suitcase and place it in the back, and climbed in. The spirit had not spoken to him again, and Bakura was not quite sure if he was still recovering or if he was just taking in his surroundings and working out what his host was doing exactly. Neither thought thrilled him. He gave the driver directions and finally the taxi pulled away from the hotel.

The airport was thankfully relatively close to the hotel, and he made it there without any incidents. Paying the driver, Bakura made his way through the building, straining to remember where everything was. He had been so tired the day that he had arrived in Egypt, and so he hadn't picked up on many details of the airport. It was with only a few wrong turns that he found the check-in and finally turned his suitcase in. The woman behind the desk informed him curtly that he had over five hours to wait for his plane, and he laughed nervously and gave a half-hearted explanation that he didn't really mind sitting there for a while. There was only a small crowd of people in the airport that day, and he was grateful for the peace as he made his way to the area where he was to wait for his plane.

There was so much _sand moving_.

Bakura had barely settled into a seat in a remote corner of the room before he felt and saw the spirit abruptly snap into focus before him. He jumped slightly, eyes wide with shock. Crimson cloak flared out behind him, and arms crossed over his chest firmly, the Ring spirit glared down at Bakura and could not have pulled a more commanding look.

"You're..." Bakura whispered in surprise, "out of the Ring..."

He smiled a humourless smile. Bakura could not help his staring, for the spirit was —well— transparent. Like a ghost, Bakura thought with a shiver, eyeing the shimmering colour of the blue plastic seats behind the spirit. And he was a ghost, he supposed. A soul not in an afterlife. "I have always been able to do this. Now, quit your gawking. Someone will notice your odd behaviour." The spirit snapped.

Leaning back into the seat, Bakura tried to breathe more evenly and not stare so much at the spirit. The anger and derision he was used to, and it did not surprise him that this was the tone leaving the spirit's mouth. Rather, it made him think that perhaps the spirit was in far better health. He sounded much more confident. "We're going away, back to Domino," Bakura whispered meekly, "so just relax until then, okay?"

The thief's eyes narrowed. "Now, now. Don't think I'll just go along quietly with everything that you've decided, host of mine." A smirk played about his lips, and all at once he seemed to be in a better mood. His arms dropped from his chest. "I've quite missed this country, actually. And there is one small matter..." taking two steps forward, the thief leaned over Bakura and brought his face within inches of his. His violet eyes drilled into Bakura's. "As I recall, you did promise me something back in the Afterlife, did you not..." the smirk widened.

His fingers were gripping the edges of his seat tightly, and his breath had shortened. Bakura wet his lips and tried to keep his voice from stammering. He was so _close_. "A-ah. Right. The pastry...um..." That's not harmful, Bakura tried to reason out, I wouldn't be letting him do something harmful. It's just food. That's okay, isn't it.

"Well?" There was really too much mocking in that voice for Bakura to trust anything that came from his lips. It was likely that the thief would just take over his body whether or not he agreed with him. Maybe he was just taunting him with the idea that he really would try to work out some sort of agreement between them, making Bakura think that he could trust him. But Bakura knew better. This was the spirit who had done so many terrible things, and he didn't forget about them so easily. He took a breath in and slid further back into the seat, which only seemed to amuse the spirit.

"O-okay. But that's it. We have to wait here for the plane, okay?" Bakura hadn't meant for his voice to sound so timid, but he couldn't help it. The Ring spirit was just so _intimidating_. The thief snapped out of focus, disappearing back into his host's mind. His Cheshire grin was the last thing Bakura saw of him. "Thief...?" He whispered, a little alarmed that the spirit had not actively agreed with him before disappearing.

Sound was the first thing that left him. Bakura barely even noticed, as it was rather silent in the room anyway. Scent left him next, but like the first sense he hadn't really been using it at the time. The next sensation was much stronger than the last two, and it sent him into a mild panic. His sense of self retreated into his mind, and like a tidal wave Bakura found himself being pulled into the deep darkness that he recalled from so long ago. His vision snapped out like a light, and with a silent whoosh Bakura lost control.

...He was sitting in a cold hallway. There was an empty darkness on either end. On the wall he was leaning against there was a clean, walnut door with a brass doorknob. Across from his door, further down the hall, there was a second door, made completely of metal. Hieroglyphs were etched around the frame, and a large Eye stood out in the middle. Some dark stain the colour of rust covered some portions of the door. Bakura could only hope.

Picking himself up off of the floor, he turned the doorknob of his soul room and relaxed instantly. Everything was just as he had left it. Hardwood covered the floor, though thick rugs were piled up around a four-poster bed in the middle. The walls were an elaborate painting of a distant world: Monster World. Mountains curled around the oak desk in the corner, breaking out into rolling hills around the black fireplace surrounded by stones. It was the same fireplace that had been in the sitting room of his old home in England, and it brought him many warm memories. There was a shelf on one wall next to a large wardrobe containing all of his precious things: his duel cards, his Monster World character sheets, his photo albums. Letters to his sister lay spilled out all over his desk where he had left them. Figurines of every friend he had ever known sat in little delicate glass cases on another shelf. And there was his shadow box, containing the memory of the time that they had all defeated the Ring spirit when he had threatened them in the Monster World Shadow Game.

Dust had collected in every glass case. Bakura felt his throat tighten, and he glanced up at the ceiling, past the ceiling fan and the colours of the great castle that had once belonged to a character that the Ring spirit had named Zorc. What are you doing right now, Bakura wondered uneasily.

His shadow box memory had been collecting dust, too.

xXx

Following Bakura around seemed to be getting him nowhere. Mokuba could not imagine what he was doing wandering around Luxor when it was nearing nightfall, but he had been a bit suspicious at the mocking smirk that he had shot at the man who had brought him his pastry. Munching on it as he walked, Bakura seemed completely absorbed in all of the sights and sounds around him and so hadn't noticed Mokuba following him quietly several meters behind. He knew he should be returning to his big brother as soon as possible, as his brother was someone who did not tolerate lateness, but Mokuba could not resist trying to figure out what was so wrong with his friend. Maybe the others hadn't noticed, but throughout the whole trip to the Pharaoh's tomb and then back, and then through dinner, Bakura had been acting differently. A little more...tense. Distracted. Anxious about something, maybe. Mokuba wasn't sure what it was, but he felt like he should be doing something to make him feel better. And since Bakura would probably not be too keen on talking about his problems to a kid (he was sure that they all saw him as one, even though he was well into his teens), Mokuba was determined to find out what the problem was on his own and then confront him about it later.

It was only by chance that he had spotted Bakura in the café, as he had just been returning from getting his brother some coffee when he had noticed him ordering a pastry. And smirking nastily. The tin of coffee still weighed heavily in his bag (enough that he didn't forget about his original purpose of being out there), but he ignored it and focused on figuring out where exactly Bakura was headed. The white-haired man appeared to have made up his mind about something, and was striding off down a side street that Mokuba hadn't even noticed was there. He had to speed up in order to keep up with him.

After many twists and turns they came to a road leading out of the great city. Mokuba could not believe what his friend (okay, he supposed that he didn't know him well enough to call him a friend, but still) was doing. What was so important that he would go trekking out of the city for it? There wasn't anything out there. Mokuba picked up his pace even more as Bakura's long strides increased the distance between them. Glancing over his shoulder, Mokuba stared longingly back at the familiar roofs of some buildings and wished he could just turn around and call his big brother and tell him what was wrong. But it was no use: he had left his cell phone back in the hotel because he had thought he would only be gone five minutes, and now if he turned around, they might not ever find out which direction he had taken. Already his fast pace was creating even more distance between them, and Mokuba had to make an effort to keep up with him.

They left Luxor behind.

Egypt was dreadfully hot during the day, but by contrast incredibly cold at night. Already Mokuba could feel the temperature dropping, degree by degree, and he shivered in anticipation of the shivering he would be doing later. His shirt and vest were definitely not thick enough for this. It was lucky that Bakura was so intent on where he walking that he did not even notice the quiet teen stalking him some ways behind. The road that they travelled on was packed sand and dirt, thankfully, and so it did not require much effort to walk. Mokuba did not relish the idea of slipping and sliding through sand, filling his sneakers with it and tripping in it. So there was the comfort of the hard road, at least. And with a road, it would make it easier for him to find his way back. Whenever that happened.

Bakura seemed to know exactly where he was going, which eased Mokuba's concern a little. Sightseeing? Some strange need to see the stars out at some nostalgic location? He'd couldn't fathom what the reason was, but his strange behaviour was making him determined to keep following him. As far as he knew, Bakura was someone who did not generally do these sorts of things. Unless he had him all wrong, and he really did wander off all on his own at night regularly. Since they never really spent time together, and mostly when the met each other it was because they were there to see Yuugi, he decided he couldn't really make a firm decision on what Bakura was truly like. Still, he was curious. Everyone was so stressed recently, what with Dark Marik on the loose, and so it didn't really seem like the smartest thing for Bakura to be doing, leaving the city without telling anybody like he had. Mokuba winced slightly, realizing his mistake. Maybe he really should have told his brother and left Bakura for them to figure out...

It was too late now to turn back, and so Mokuba kept going. They walked for nearly two hours, according to his watch, and finally reached a great set of ruins that extended beyond his sight. The night had hit them by now, and Mokuba rubbed his arms to keep warm, cheeks glowing red from the cold. Bakura entered the ruins without pause, though his back straightened visibly, which had Mokuba even more confused. He wondered at the sort of expression Bakura must be wearing, for he seemed suddenly much more tense than before. Something was bothering him, for sure.

Mokuba followed as close as he dared as Bakura weaved about the ruins and headed deeper in. He turned another corner abruptly, disappearing behind a stone structure that might have resembled a house once. Hurrying along, Mokuba turned the corner as well but was startled to find that Bakura was not there. The moonlight and starlight did nothing to illuminate any tracks he might have left, and Mokuba found himself at a loss for what to do. He sprinted down the narrow alley between the two stone structures on either side and came to another turn, his breath sounding noisy in the quiet and creating a thin fog in front of his face. There, to his left: the edges of Bakura's sky-blue sweater vanishing behind a row of pillars. Mokuba breathed a sigh of relief and took off after him.

He had just hit the first pillar when his sneaker caught in some rubble and he tripped, landing on the ground with a small cry. Ahead of him, Bakura stilled so totally that he might have been a sculpture. Then, slowly, he turned around, his eyes landing on the sheepish Mokuba rubbing his knees and picking himself up off of the ground. "Uh...hi, Bakura." Mokuba brushed the sand off of his cheeks and offered an apologetic smile. He opened his mouth to explain his presence there, but suddenly caught sight of the expression on Bakura's face. It flashed out of existence within a second, but he was sure —just for a moment— that something so malicious and cold had just flitted across his face.

Shaking his head and laughing a little, Bakura strode up to him and bent over slightly to examine the rough scrape on his chin. "Mokuba! You're sneakier than I thought. Are you okay? It looks like you took quite a fall. That'll need to be washed or you'll get an infection." The concern on his face looked so genuine that Mokuba faltered for a moment.

The starlight lit up Bakura's eyes, and as close as he was Mokuba could see a distinctive red tint.

"You're not Bakura," he choked out in stunned terror. It was the worst thing that he could have said in that one moment, and Mokuba regretted it instantly.

Bakura paused. Then, moving so quickly that Mokuba could not have reacted even if he had tried, Bakura grabbed a fistful of his shirt and lifted him into the air. With a sharp jerk, he slammed Mokuba's head against the nearest pillar, knocking him unconscious. He let the teen slide from his fingers onto the ground, crumpled against the stone. The Ring spirit considered him. He'd been far too careless, and this was the result of it. Most likely the others would come searching for him, that is if they were not searching for him already. But he really couldn't have just let the child go, as then everyone would just find out about his presence sooner. This had been the only option, really.

He clenched his fingers into fists and felt the muscles move beneath his host's skin. A small chuckle escaped his lips. "You've gone a bit soft since we last shared a body, haven't you, dear host?" Of course he could not hear him, lost as he was in the recesses of his mind, probably moping away in his mind room. But really, there was barely any muscle anywhere on his body. Well, no matter. That would be amended eventually. It was certain that he was going to need a more fit body in the near future.

Turning on the spot, the Ring spirit looked over the degraded temple, with the crumbling pillars holding up nothing but the sky. Pieces of the ceiling lay scattered in the centre of the surrounding pillars. Now, this would make things more difficult. He was sure that he had buried what he needed in here, but if there was some stone covering the spot, then he would have a tough time removing it. He left the child where he was and started walking down the line of pillars, counting silently in his head.

Here. The Ring spirit examined the nearly invisible line of hieroglyphs near the base of the pillar, etched in the stone in the messy script of a child. Yes. Definitely here. No ceiling pieces lay nearby, luckily. Ra and his lot were far too negligent. Another wicked chuckle left his mouth. Then, seeing no other alternative, the Ring spirit got down on his hands and knees and began to dig.

The ground was tough, and sand filled up the hole whenever he paused to stretch his fingers, but after a while and about a foot down, he came across a metal box about half the length of his arm. Shadow magic gave the box a better seal than the tiny metal latch on the front ever could. Bakura longed to open it, but that would be disastrous to the fragile contents resting inside, so he reassured himself that the scrolls were still contained within the box by gently rattling it, and his ears were met with the sound of rustling papyrus. He starting kicking sand into the hole once more, filling it quickly before packing the sand and dirt with his feet. The box he dropped into his host's shoulder bag. It clanged a little with another metal object inside the bag, and Bakura looked down curiously to find a duel disk within the bag. So, his host still fancied himself a duelist. The thought was rather amusing, but Bakura quickly returned to thinking about what to do with his current situation. He could leave now, as there was nothing left to do here...

Mokuba lay right where he had left him, looking pitiful in his bruised and unconscious state. The Ring spirit kicked some sand at his face in irritation. There was really no reason for him to take him back to the city, but he didn't particularly like the idea of leaving the child near the place where he had hidden the metal box, and so he opted to move him. With a huff he slung the child over his shoulder and took off, looking for somewhere suitable to hide him. Hide? Thought the thief, pausing in his step. Would that make him look more or less suspicious? Those friends of his host's would probably all wonder regardless what he had been doing out here, but perhaps if he made an effort to hide the boy it would make them even more determined to find out why. On that thought, he decided that perhaps hiding the child would not be the best idea after all. After another turn he dropped the boy on the ground, right out in the open on a main street, where his friends would be sure to see him. Task completed, the Ring spirit made his way out of the ruins of the village and proceeded to start his trek back to the city.

He had been walking not more than a few minutes before he saw sand clouding the sky in the distance, and the faint blurry lines that resembled a car, speeding ever closer. The thief let out an annoyed huff. In the back of his mind, the link thrummed and a small meek voice asked whether he was quite finished, because he had been out an awfully long time. The Ring spirit ignored his host.

A challenger was approaching. He found his annoyance slipping away. This was not such a bad thing, after all, having them find out where Mokuba had gone (however they had managed it). It didn't really matter whether they knew that he was back or not...they would never be able to stop him anyway...

{Thief, please stop whatever you're doing...} Pleaded his host to the shadows in their shared mind.

His lips quirked up into a toothy smile, though his host could not see it. {There is so much you haven't told me yet, isn't there? Well, I will find out in due time. And rest assured, your body will be returned to you in an acceptable condition.} He added as an afterthought.

{That wasn't what I was concerned about!}

The Ring spirit laughed loudly. The car closed in on him. Under his shirt, the Millennium Ring glowed brightly and its pointers vibrated against his skin. His laughter died in his throat, and the thief pulled out the Item in wonder, holding it horizontally so that it might orient itself. The vibrations settled down, and then a single pointer raised itself towards the incoming car. He noted which pointer it was. "Well, well, well. So that is how they found out about the brat, was it..." the thief murmured softly, now wholly interested in all of the knowledge that his host was keeping from him. He let the Ring drop from his hand and rest against his chest. This battle will be far more exciting than I had thought it was going to be, the thief decided in increasing excitement.

The approaching vehicle wasn't a car, he could see that now. It was a green van. Sand kicked up behind it in a low cloud. He waited patiently for it to stop. Eventually, the van started to slow, having evidently spotted him. It rolled to a halt several meters away from him. Tristan, Joey, Kaiba, Marik, and Ishizu all piled out.

Ah, thought the Ring spirit. This is where the battle begins.

"Bakura!" They all shouted, completely aware of who he was, as was clear by their angry and shocked and fearful tones of voice. Not one of them missed the shining Ring hanging from his neck.

He laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

"Where's Mokuba?" Kaiba yelled furiously, taking several steps forward, his fists clenched firmly at his sides. The Ring spirit suddenly recalled a duel that they had had, long ago, when he had kidnapped Mokuba once before. They had never finished that duel...

His hand dropped into his host's bag, and his fingers found the cool metal of a duel disk, and the smooth plastic of a card box. He withdrew the duel disk first, sliding it onto his arm with a rush of delight that he remembered from so long ago, as well. The cards came next, and he loaded them with a snap into the deck zone of the disk.

"What's say you and I have a duel to find that out, Kaiba?" The thief drawled in a low tone, licking his teeth in anticipation of the upcoming challenge. He already knew the answer: this was about his little brother, after all. Kaiba would never refuse.

The night grew colder, and Seto Kaiba slid his arm into a duel disk of his own, icy ocean eyes glaring down his opponent.

"Duel!"


	21. Chapter 21

Chapter 21

He eyed the twisted smirk on his opponent's face and ground his teeth together in silent fury. The face of the man across from him was so warped that it made Kaiba believe it wasn't even capable of making the sweet and innocent expressions that were so common of Yuugi's white-haired friend. His eyes skimmed over the cards in his hand. Lord of D. and Kaiser Sea Horse —it already seemed like his deck was showing the miserable spirit no mercy. Now, if he planned this carefully, he would be able to set the stage for his favoured dragon's appearance. Bakura would stand no chance against the all-powerful Blue-Eyes White Dragon. He was sure of it.

Thief King Bakura drew his own hand and swiftly examined them with an exceptional poker face. Even Kaiba, who was so used to predicting the moves of his business competitors, could not begin to guess at the starting hand that Bakura had been granted. Finally, the thief raised his eyes and said in a jovial manner, "I'll be taking the first move, since I am the challenger. Yes?" He dragged out the teasing question with the slightest hint of a foreign accent (something definitely not English). Kaiba merely narrowed his eyes, which Bakura took as an affirmation and started his turn.

"Where on Earth did you get the Ring, huh, you body snatcher?" Tristan yelled at the thief from the sidelines, "and how'd you get back from the Afterlife? No one believes that note, our friend Bakura had nothing to do with it, did he? So tell us the truth now!" His face was torn with hurt: all Tristan could think about was how terrible it was that his friend was once again at the mercy of the thief, and he felt indescribably guilty for it, though he did not know why. The thief was thinking {Note?}, but his host was too distressed about the possibilities of what he could be doing (not knowing about anything that was going on outside his mind room) that he didn't hear it.

Held back only by Marik's hand at his elbow, Joey shouted just as loudly. "You're gonna regret messin' with us again, Bakura! Cause we've faced you before an' won! And we're even stronger than before, so don't you go thinking we'll just let you go on your merry way when you've got one of our friends!" He fidgeted on the spot, eager to rush ahead and let loose a punch in the thief's face. Even if it was really their friend's face. "Kaiba, beat him like there's no tomorrow," Joey encouraged, torn between feeling angry at the Ring spirit and feeling anxious for his friend, "and then let's stop playing c_ard games_ and _rip that stupid Ring _from around his neck!"

Marik jerked at his arm in warning, and Joey spun around to look at him in frustration. "We can't just rush in and attack him head-on when's he got that Millennium Item around his neck, Joey! The Eye etched on its surface isn't just there for decoration. The Ring bestows formidable protection upon its bearer," he urged. "We must be careful. This duel may just be the only way to go at him."

"The Necklace is indeed powerful as well, but its abilities are more passive than the Ring's. I do not think that I would be the best match against that particular Item and its bearer," Ishizu added darkly.

Pulling at his hair in agitation, Joey let out a helpless cry. "Then what Item would be the best to pit against the Ring, huh? Tell me that!"

There was a cold silence from Marik. "The Puzzle, maybe...or the Rod..." Ishizu murmured softly.

They were interrupted by the object of the conversation. "Have you ever heard the story of the wrongly accused knight?" Bakura asked seriously, throwing them all for a loop. He set a magic or trap card and selected another card from his hand. "Once, long ago, he was executed for deeds that he did not commit. Now to this day, the knight lives on...only in the form of a headless ghost, doomed to wander forever between the living world and the Afterlife!" Joey quivered a little in uncertainty, struck by just how serious Bakura sounded. Marik and Ishizu remained impassive. Tristan clenched his fists.

"Quit your jabbering and get on with it," Kaiba snapped, unimpressed by his speech.

The thief gave him another twisted smile. He placed a monster on the field. The four holographic generators on either side of the area lit up in a kaleidoscope of colours and all at once a knight stepped onto the sandy terrain out of thin air, holding up a shining shield and sword. The knight was headless.

_Headless Knight Earth_

_Fiend_

_ATK/1450 DEF/1700_

"Turn end."

Kaiba didn't bother with any eloquent words. He drew and plotted away in his head. "Kaiser Sea Horse! Take the field and destroy his useless Knight!"

_Kaiser Sea Horse Light_

_Sea Serpent_

_ATK/1700 DEF/1650_

Dark indigo armour clinked as his monster charged forward and raised its sword, meeting the opponent's weapon with vigour. Steel met steel and the sound rang out across the playing field. Headless Knight twisted sideways from the impact, narrowly avoiding the Kaiser's next swift blow, but could not stop Kaiba's monster from kicking its feet out from under it. The Knight was impaled and disintegrated within another second. Kaiser returned to Kaiba's side in triumph.

Far from being irritated, the thief looked rather thoroughly pleased with the virtual show, sliding the dead Knight into his graveyard with a bit of a smirk. "So, you really have been doing something all that time I'd been gone. The holograms have greatly improved. Terribly realistic. But you always had the desire to bring your card spirits to life, haven't you, Kaiba? How delighted were you when the first of your imaginary friends were turned into holograms?"

Rolling his fingers against his palm, Kaiba attempted to maintain some semblance of composure. "If you're trying to distract me from the duel, you can stop now. Nothing will keep me from victory,"

"Of course." Continue with that temperament and you'll surely fail to predict my moves, let alone counter them, the Ring spirit mocked silently.

The duel went on, neither duelist slowing down with their strategy. Kaiba relentlessly attacked, ignoring the Thief King's traps and spells in favour of winning as quickly as possible. Life points dropped on both sides like a running stream. Neither duelist seemed fazed.

Fire split across the field, and the ground rumbled in near realism. Kaiba stood his ground as Bakura launched attacks that sent light and heat into his face with dazzling intensity. Bakura laughed cruelly as severed pieces of his latest monster whipped past his shoulder, missing him by centimetres. The roars were loud; the shouts obscured in the cacophony; Kaiba shred Bakura's defence in one reckless strike, leaving him open in a crucial moment. The attack that came later only made Kaiba angrier.

His host was shivering in the dark of his mind room, and somehow his body reacted to it minutely, leaving the Thief King with clenching muscles and pin pricks of heightened tension. He sent no calming words nor offered any reasonable lies. It was time for the child to realize what he had unleashed.

Bakura's cool almond eyes stared down the enormous monster baring down on him. Her teeth were razor sharp and incredibly long, lined in a perfect row along her gums, with a slim pink tongue accentuating the snarl aimed at him. Kaiba was shouting. "Blue-Eyes!" No monster strong enough to stand against her. There was only one thing for it, then.

"I call a Shadow Game," the thief commanded as the incredible beast swallowed his facedown Spirit Reaper in a heartbeat. And the shadows answered his call.

Darkness. Sudden and quick, vanishing the landscape around them. "And I set the terms as being the energy depletion of any who enter the Realm," Bakura commanded. The last of the desert winked out. The van that had been there only moments before was gone.

"NO!"

He didn't know who was screaming —it was probably the whole lot of them— but he had no time to consider as the Shadow Realm closed in around them. Black and violet clouds hung thickly, choking the air. Whirling spirits and demons of the Realm, crying out in a high keening, voices of all languages and of none, howled into the nothingness of the void that they were in. The Ring glowed softly, spreading the warmth of protection and clearness of the air to him, keeping the darkness at bay. Even with the Item at work, the Ring spirit still felt the heavy beating in the air, ready to decay his soul the moment the Item failed.

Across the field, Kaiba staggered on his feet. He felt like the whole world had just been sucked away, leaving him in airless free fall in some darkened atmosphere, where thunder storms were highlighted by spirit lightning instead of electricity. His bones were pure iron, but his muscles were weaker than spaghetti, and he nearly dropped to the sand under the pressure of his own weight. Blurry spots pecked the corner of his vision. He struggled to maintain his stance, focusing on the feel of his cards, and the awesome vision of the might of his Dragon, crouched protectively in front of him. Still the air left him.

Victory danced on the thief's lips. He will be poorly prepared for what awaits him here, Bakura reasoned. The field of magic here will devour his strength and tug at his soul. His body will collapse and then...

"Everyone, come nearer to me," Ishizu cried out, running forward to Kaiba's side where the others joined her. The Necklace glowed brighter than the Ring, sucking heavily on the strength of its user in order to protect the others as well as her.

"Thank Ra," Marik gasped as the darkness shifted away. Joey and Tristan heaved equal sighs of relief, leaning slightly on each other. Kaiba's vision returned in full force, and he took in the sight of the Thief King looking perfectly at home amongst the swirling clouds that could kill. And he seethed.

Bakura scowled at the Necklace user. Kaiba straightened his back and shot him a glare. The Dragon echoed his thoughts with a growl, eyes eerily as hard as her master's.

"What are you playing at?" Kaiba yelled.

The Thief snapped a finger at the field, ready to restart the game. "Spirit Reaper, revive!"

There was a distant, twisted chuckle, broken with a hiss and the snapping of the White Dragon's wide jaws. Abruptly, she choked, and stretched her neck, throwing up a cackling Spirit onto the field amid a pool of blood and saliva. A scythe landed in the Shadow sand an instant later. Retrieving its bloody weapon, the Reaper hovered back over to its field, now in a face up position.

"And now, due to the effect of my Spider Web field spell, your White Dragon is changed to defence position until the end phase of your next turn. Of course I have plans to remove her from the playing field shortly. And you should be welcoming that, really, since she now lies worthless on your field," Bakura knew he'd crossed some sort of virtual line, "so end your turn and await her destruction,"

His landlord was unconscious. The loneliness of his mind had done him in, perhaps, or maybe residual effects of the Shadows bearing on his body were filtering back to him. Either way, now that the body was completely his, the tension no longer seared through his muscles and that made the duelling that much easier. The Ring spirit could taste his own laughter, bubbling in his stomach, but squashed the thought of releasing it. Mocking Kaiba any further was probably unnecessary.

"Clearly your first death taught you nothing about pain," Kaiba snarled, "I'll see to it that you finally realize the hopelessness of a losing situation,"

Bakura was caught somewhere between the realization that Kaiba was more like the High Priest than he himself knew, and that he probably had gone too far with his last comment.

No matter, he thought maliciously, since he has no idea who he dealing with. Taught me nothing about pain...? His statements will cost him dearly.

Bakura's attempts at destroying the Blue-Eyes might have succeeded had it been a weaker duelist. Had it been a man who held no attachment to his cards. But Kaiba was both strong minded and attached to his dragon, which were seemingly rendering his efforts meaningless. The High Priest reincarnated countered his traps with some of his own, finally taking down Bakura's Spirit Reaper by card effect rather than direct attack. The Thief King watched his cackling Reaper drop to the sand in flames, emotionless.

Had these monsters been mine, had this deck been mine, the duel would already be won, Bakura thought irritably. The deck wasn't built half badly, but he missed the spirits and fiends of his own deck rather than the mash-up of monsters in his host's. He could almost _feel_ the deck working against him, and he sensed the partnership between the card spirits and his host. If he had not been duelling at the time he would have almost found it amusing. I am him too, Bakura told the deck darkly in his mind. You _will_ obey me.

His next draw had him grinding his teeth. Really, landlord, what were you thinking, Bakura thought tiredly. A spellcaster? White Magical Hat stared off into the distance, completely ignoring its unseen viewer. At least beside him was a card he could use: Change of Heart. Bakura looked up to enjoy the view of his enemies sweating away their breath. Even the Seer was not unaffected, important as her energy was to keeping her protective shield working. Soon it would be over, regardless of how things were working against him. Kaiba would fall.

"Change of Heart, take control of one of his White Dragons," Bakura demanded. The two roaring monsters thrashed as they were separated, with the winged magic card smiling sadly as it placed its control spell over one beast. "Attack," he nearly purred in satisfaction.

Blue-Eyes roared in agony as Bakura's Dragon flew across the field. Kaiba waved his hand. "Trap, activate!" No, thought Bakura angrily, not again. "Destruction Ring!"

There was a flash of purple as the card flipped over, and Bakura knew the deadly nature of it instantly. Well, well, what does he think he's doing? He peered thoughtfully at his opponent, seeing no deceit in his eyes. Kaiba appeared as determined as ever.

"Destroy my Blue-Eyes and inflict a thousand points of damage on both me and my opponent," Kaiba declared. His monster left the field for the graveyard, and Bakura felt the hit on his life points like a punch in the gut.

"Kill one to save the other?" Bakura cried, "it's no use! Now I'm about to destroy the remainder of your life points. Attack him directly!" He didn't pause to consider why Kaiba had made such an outrageous move, he was too focused on the end of the duel, on the possibility of winning, on defeating the arrogant man once and for all. Blue-Eyes was drawing closer to her master, her wings unfurled as if to slow herself down, her head curled back as White Lightning gathered in her lungs, hard as ice and hot as fire. "Go down into the Shadows." He sneered.

Kaiba looked up at his favoured beast, his vision swimming and his heart slowing. The Shadows were like a heavy drum in his ear —scratch that, they were a heavy drum in his ear— and he was desperate to return to the Realm where he belonged. Spirits with no mouths sang to him in their slick tongues, clinging to his legs and dragging him down into the sand-that-was-not-sand. Spirits with no eyes watched him drop to one knee and winked teasingly as he dug his palm into his stomach, trying to get his diaphragm to move so that he could finally _breathe_. He could hear his Dragon call out pleadingly in his mind, asking his forgiveness, begging his strength, though he knew it was only a monster, somehow he believed that monster was a she...

White Lightning lanced towards him.

xXx

The cold coming in through the windows was beginning to disturb his partner, and with a reluctant sigh Atem shut the window and the drapes tightly and once more encased the room in darkness. Odion was finally getting some sleep in a bed beside Yuugi, and Atem was supposed to watch for any fatal changes in Yuugi's condition. But he slept on peacefully, and as the young Pharaoh went to check his temperature, found that indeed he was as okay as he appeared to be. The incense on the beside table burned silently, and beside it lay the runes. There were reflective runes carved into little statuettes of various ancient gods, medallions, and little bone chips from an assortment of animals. The runes to repel disease overlapped the runes to reflect bad intentions, which were beside the spells to remove physical burdens. A crudely drawn circle in pencil surrounded the bed, coming up the wall and around the headboard.

Atem could not make heads nor tails of it all, but he had never been taught much of the practice of healing. He knew it was entirely different from the science that Yuugi was used to in his time, the strange machines and the liquids to pour through the veins and the small pills that supposedly cured any sickness you cared to name. These things he was looking at now were old rituals, probably passed down and modified through the tomb keepers' lines since his own lifetime, some three thousand years ago. To him, Odion was like an acting priest-physician, healer of the Goddess Sekhmet and son of her teachings. He said the prayers in Arabic, coaxed Yuugi to drink such herbal teas and dry food with familiar spices, and then drew his protective circle and offered food to each statue of the god. He burned incense to sooth Yuugi's spirit and cleanse his lungs. Atem was grateful.

He sat on the edge of the bed and clasped his partner's hand in his own, looking at the powerful Puzzle gripped in Yuugi's other hand. It too worked to keep the Shadows at bay. In fact, it was probably the reason he was getting so much sleep. "If only there was something I could be doing other than sitting here. And now with Bakura..."

"You know the others can handle themselves, Other Me." Yuugi murmured with a yawn. Atem started. He opened his mouth to utter apologies, but Yuugi cut him off. "You didn't wake me, and I'm not feeling any worse. I just couldn't sleep. I'm worried about him, too." He smiled anxiously.

"I cannot make the worries disappear, Partner, but perhaps I can distract you with a game," Atem suggested, rubbing his thumb across the back of Yuugi's hand. Receiving a warm smile in return, Atem left his bedside to pull out a checkers board that Joey had found for him in a local gift shop. It wasn't as complicated as Yuugi would normally like, but they all figured that less thinking on his part would probably allow him more rest in the long run. Atem set up the board on Yuugi's stomach and quietly made his first move.

Yuugi looked mildly surprised. "Where did you learn to play checkers?" His fingers found their own piece, clacking it gently across the coloured squares.

"Well," Atem answered, "during the time that I spent in your body, while I was not in control, I tried to learn as much as possible about the new world that I had found myself in. So I listened and watched and slowly learned about you. Most of my knowledge was gained before you even knew I existed. What a car was, why it was important to stop at a crosswalk...some things were necessary for survival." He moved another piece.

There was a light chuckle from his friend. "And some things, Other Me?"

"Yuugi, you have to realize that you play a lot of games," Atem said seriously. Another laugh from Yuugi.

"I probably got that from you. I think I probably couldn't have been your soul reincarnated unless I loved games. So it's your fault, really." Yuugi's eyes were sliding shut unintentionally, but he made a new move regardless. "Other Me," he murmured.

Moving as if to continue the game, Atem looked down at the board and then thought better of it. "Yes?"

Another yawn from Yuugi. "Thanks for...distracting me..."

"If you had told me sooner, Partner, then I would have found something for you to do earlier, when you were not so tired. You need to tell me what is on your mind, because I am not in your head to hear it anymore. Even if it is simply across our mind link, speak to me, please. Because we always tell each other everything, right?" Atem paused at the sight of Yuugi's eyelids sliding shut once more. His breathing deepened. The Pharaoh lay his head beside Yuugi's and reassured himself of his partner's wellbeing by listening to that heavy, even breath, but did not dare to look at the paleness of his cheeks lest he break the mental image he had formed in his mind.

"Yes...everything, I am sure..."

xXx

There was something about that smirk that drove him to his feet. Thief King Bakura looked down across the field at him and betrayed his composure with that crooked smirk of his, and in his mind Kaiba already counted the man as the loser. I have only lost to four people, he decided, forcibly locking his knees to prevent his collapse. The first was Yuugi, Yuugi of the soft words and gentle gestures. Yuugi who could not stand up to bullies for so many years. Yuugi whose heart was open to everybody. Losses he eventually accepted.

His dragon was roaring.

Kaiba fanned out his hand and regarded his spell and trap zone on his disk.

The second person he had lost to was Pegasus, mocking him with that Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon of his. His cruelness had been a disguise for the absolute longing and need that had driven him to find a way to resurrect his dead wife. Pegasus of the intelligent mind, the jokes and the childish fantasies. Pegasus with his cartoons and his expensive wine. Pegasus who reintroduced the world to Duel Monsters after thousands of years. Pegasus who introduced _him_ to the game. It was a loss he eventually accepted.

Tristan and Marik and Ishizu and Joey. Yelling at him about something. He couldn't hear over the roaring.

Activating a trap zone, he added his shout to the air and called his move. There was something in those blue eyes of his dragon that looked so like the woman in the Pharaoh's memories and in his vision, something that he'd been refusing to accept for so long. Something wonderful and exciting and mysterious and ancient. You are the Blue-Eyes, nothing more, he thought while gritting his teeth.

The third person he had lost to was Dartz, in that final duel to decide the fate of the world. A man over ten thousand years old, powerfully corrupted by the Orichalcos and having nothing left to lose. His only desire had been to bring forth a monster of absolute destruction. He had grudgingly admitted that the man had been a good opponent. A loss he eventually overcame.

Bakura, I will bring you down, he thought. I will make your defeat so utterly complete that you will not _dare _to challenge me again. Ever.

And finally, the fourth person that he had lost to was the Pharaoh, that Other Yuugi who so casually took Yuugi's name and face. The calculating, risk-it-all or gain nothing man. The ultimate sacrifices the Pharaoh made. His foolish desires for peace and happiness. Atem of the lucky, last move wins it all games. Atem of fate and destiny. He had never quite figured out which games he had lost to Atem and which were the ones he had lost to Yuugi. But they were losses he had eventually accepted.

"Enchanted Javelin!"

And life soared in his blood, washing over him with its energy. Bakura was yelling something now, but Kaiba was too distracted by the absolute power of the lightning about to hit him that he missed it. This was one person he knew he would never be able to accept winning. Not even if he was reincarnated a dozen times. Or two dozen.

"I will not lose to you, Bakura!" Kaiba roared back, before the White Lightning encased him completely.

It was definitely not what he was expecting. The flames ate raw at the energy surrounding him, draining him to the amount he had had before his trap. Light so pure and bright it blinded him and allowed him to see, all at the same time. Light that blew back the Shadow spirits at his feet and destroyed the sand, made a crater of where he stood. Kaiba felt the Blue-Eyes White Dragon's glorious power and revelled in it.

There was no more shouting. Kaiba stood where he been before, oceanic eyes alit with the power that knew victory. Kaiba stood and said nothing, and Bakura knew he had no more moves left. You destroyed one of your precious dragons in order to keep the second in my possession, Bakura thought. Even knowing that you would not be able to use the second one for a full turn. But you did it regardless, as a precaution, perhaps, setting up some defence in case I had something in store for you. Or maybe too attached to the dragon to let her go, he sneered. Then you allowed me to make a second attack knowing you could simply repel it. With your field empty you knew I could not resist. You let me taste victory and then you snatched it back. A note of approving slid into his thoughts, and Bakura pushed it away. He ended his turn, watching silently as the dragon floated to Kaiba's side, crouching into a defensive position as per orders from the Spider Web field card.

The seconds spent in the Shadows were all so meaningless now. Kaiba drew and acquired a monster card.

Battle Ox glinted onto the field. The words were quiet. "Attack him directly."

The beast-warrior had good speed for its size and weight, and it reached Bakura within moments. He offered the face of his duel disk as a target, and the Battle Ox accepted, slashing down with its double-headed war axe and taking out the remainder of his life points. Holographic generators returned to their disks.

And the Shadow Realm, knowing the completion of the Game that had been called, floated away like a bad dream or an illusion. Nothing remained of the violet clouds that had been all around them. Nothing remained of the spirits that had screamed silently.

"Now," Kaiba said coldly, "where. Is. Mokuba."

Bakura told him.


	22. Chapter 22

Chapter 22

With the Shadow Realm dissipated, the group was left gasping and dizzy; hearts pounding like lead behind their ribcages. Joey dropped to the sand like a marionette with its strings cut: it had been quite a while since he had been exposed to such dark magic. To his credit, he was still lucid and he worked himself to his feet after a few moments, breath rasping in his throat. Tristan wobbled, eyes blinking hard as if he had trouble seeing straight. Ishizu was paler than her dark skin allowed, sickly looking and clutching the Necklace with all the single-mindedness of a tree weathering a heavy storm. Marik and Kaiba were undoubtedly the best off of the bunch, angry features exposing little of their physical pain. He thought it was probably due to their natural and self-taught strength of endurance.

High Priest reincarnated and the man he liked to remember as Cyber Commander took off running and stumbling respectively in the direction of Mokuba. Thief King Bakura gathered himself mentally and rocked forwards on his heels as the previous bearer of the Rod advanced towards him.

"Just get the Ring," Joey was groaning.

Marik was more agile than Bakura gave him credit for, and as he bolted forward unexpectedly Bakura had to jump sideways, raising his arm to clip the tomb keeper on the back of the neck. Stumbling briefly, Marik spun on the spot and shifted his weight more quickly than the thief could keep up with, and suddenly they were brawling in the sand.

Cursing viciously in Egyptian, Bakura stretched his host's muscles as far as they could go, narrowly avoiding being pinned by the tomb keeper. Marik let loose a punch; Bakura blocked with his duel disk, attempting to keep Marik off of him long enough to get to his feet. It seemed he had no hesitation in attacking the thief, even with him in his host's body as he was. That was beginning to make things unpleasant. Whilst Bakura was in a body not used to such fighting, apparently Marik exercised frequently, and his muscles were far more fit for the fight that they had gotten into. A harsh blow left his diaphragm inside his stomach, and Bakura coughed uselessly.

Ring glowing mutely, the thief kicked out unexpectedly and got a grip around one of the tomb keeper's wrists. He twisted hard, and Marik let out a small cry, bones creaking in protest. But his other hand was free, and Marik took hold of the dull brown cord that kept the Ring around Bakura's neck.

Both of the thief's hands came up, defending the Item from Marik's prying fingers. They rolled over each other, hands scrambling to clinch around each other's throats. "Bakura," Marik gasped for the air that wouldn't come, "I know you're in there."

Bakura fumed, eyes blazing with more colour than his host's genetics called for. "Quiet, tomb keeper. Landlord is nothing when I am in control. He is a figment of your collective imaginations. An existence to name for the actions you commit in response to _mine_." He laughed darkly.

Marik ignored the thief's words. "Come on, show me you're better than this. Fight his intentions. I know what you're going through! I had an evil spirit inside me once, too! But you can't let his dark purposes take over your own, you have to believe your opinions and your beliefs are the ones that count! Not his!" Marik dug his nails into the pale skin, practically snarling behind his teeth. His face was darkening, and he kept the muscles taunt in his neck to try and keep air flowing, even as he tripped on his words and cracked in the middle of his sentences. Bakura thought he must have fractured his wrist, or else his grip might have been tighter on his own neck.

The Ring was crackling between their bodies, and Bakura could feel his own magic, weakly, and he knew that he did not have the energy to let loose its powers on the tomb keeper. Not this soon out of his Afterlife, not so quickly after he had just lost the Shadow Game. He could hear approaching footsteps, and knew the other two, exhausted as they were, had finally worked up enough common sense to help Marik and end it all quickly. No, no, no. Bakura forced out words with a sneer. "You know me too well, tomb keeper. You know the lengths I would go to in order to achieve my goals. You know my strength and my cunning! Do you really think calling on that weakling of a host is going to stop me now? I'll choke you to death right here and now,"

Whimpering in pain, and eyes rolling shut, Marik's grip was weakening. His voice was barely a whisper, and almost inaudible. Bakura narrowed his eyes. "Don't let him convince you he's _right_."

{!}

Bakura reeled back with a half-strangled scream. Emotions were tearing through his mind, a large dosage of panic-confusion-helplessness-need-fear-worry-determination coursing through his system in a wave. He had never known such strong emotions as this. He had never felt them all at once like this. He had forgotten what it was like to _feel_, and it disgusted him at how dizzying it was, how all-consuming it was. For a single moment, he lost track of his thoughts, and lost track of the control he had over his body.

And Ryou Bakura, eyes wild with horror, looked down at the bruised and panting tomb keeper and pleaded his forgiveness in a single word.

"Help,"

And then the thief was back in control, scrambling madly to his feet, breaking out into a run to avoid the weakened Joey and Ishizu.

Sinking into the sand beside Marik, Ishizu and Joey helped him sit up, getting a better look at the nasty marks left by the thief across his neck and down his arms. They watched in silence as the retreating back of the pale teen, white hair glimmering in the moonlight, disappeared behind a low hill.

"We'll chase him down in the van after Kaiba and Tristan come back," Joey reassured, his voice subdued.

"Yes," murmured Ishizu, "just as soon as I have enough energy to drive. I feel as though I might pass out at any moment. Someone else might have to..."

"Mhm," Marik commented, "we'll be fine. He can't get that far, anyway. Must be just as exhausted as the rest of us. Shadows will take a lot out of you, regardless of whether you're adept at using them or not."

Joey muttered, "Too skinny." They both looked at him to elaborate. "Bakura. He's not a runner. Thief'll drop to the ground in no time. Jus' you see."

There was further silence. Nobody knew if they were reassuring each other or themselves.

xXx

He was fairly sure that the ground wasn't actually moving. Honestly, he had never felt so dizzy in his entire life. Skin flushed and slick with sweat, Bakura looked like he'd been involved in some less than acceptable activities. The bruises shone clearly on his delicate face and neck, and he pulled a hooded sweatshirt on despite the heat rushing through his system from the run the Ring spirit had forced their body through. Luckily the airport bathroom was completely empty, and he dunked his hands under the cold tap water and scrubbed his face thoroughly. He kept his eyes lowered to avoid looking into the mirror; the Ring spirit was leaning against the wall in his astral body directly behind him. Eyeing him. Bakura clenched his fingers under the water and tried to slow his breathing. Running his forefingers over his eyes in a last attempt to ease the soreness lingering underneath, he turned off the tap and used the nearby paper towels to dry his face.

The bathroom was stark white, and it was a heavy contrast to the red-faced young adult burying his hands into his pockets, shoulder bag slung low to avoid the bruises in his shoulder blades. Bakura strode out of the bathroom with his heart still thumping, and the Ring spirit faded into the corners of his mind.

I have to get out of here, he thought, not letting his mind stray any further. Any deeper and he would start panicking. Would start remembering all the reasons Bakura could never stand up to the thief in his mind. All of the people he knew. All of those _people_, turned into _dolls_.

Bakura was shuddering very mildly, striding quickly towards the boarding line. The Ring spirit had made it back to the airport with no time to spare whatsoever, not even giving Bakura the time to catch his breath before he had to head for the plane. His hair hid most of his face, but he was certain that he would receive more than one look at his frazzled appearance. Ticket and other necessary information in hand, he kept his head down as it was checked against the information in a nearby computer. And then he was through.

It took him a few shaky minutes, but Bakura eventually found his seat, and sunk into it gratefully, wincing at the protest his muscles were putting up. The Ring spirit made no noise whatsoever, but if anything, it only made Bakura notice his presence even more. And the shoulder bag under his seat now had something new inside, something bulky and boxlike. He dared not open the zipper and see what was inside, lest he incur his spirit's bad temper. Something had gone horribly wrong with the spirit's time out of the Ring, and he was exactly sure where it had started. The very moment he had offered the dark soul a pastry, of all things. One moment of kindness and thoughtfulness. A single moment. Bakura wouldn't make that mistake again. He couldn't. It was very important...

His whole body was aching. It had been a while since he'd been this exhausted.

_And rest assured, your body will be returned to you in an acceptable condition._

This is what he got for trusting in the spirit: pain, and nothing more.

"Please buckle your seatbelts, we will soon be taking off..."

xXx

Atem stood in the doorway of the hotel room and looked over the state of everyone who had returned. Draped across the beds and the chairs, each looked profoundly irritated and drained. Answers to his questions had been short and to the point, mumbled from dry, cracked mouths. Eyes blinked as if seeing in double-vision; heads shook as they realized that the shadows curled on the walls and the floor were just that, and that nothing dangerous was honestly going to leap out and attack them. He thought he'd seen a snatch of relief on each of their faces when he had entered the room from checking on Yuugi with Odion. Kaiba and Marik both drunk in his calm voice and fully awake appearance as though making themselves comfortable again, relaxing deeply into their chairs. Mokuba stirred only once from his place lying on the bed, and then it was just to ask for water and to miserably apologize for following Bakura. He was curtly informed by his older brother that Bakura had been dealt with, and that was that. The teen fell back asleep soon after.

Brain racing a league per second, Atem weighed his options and made a decision for the rest of the group. Bakura had not been found, and so Bakura was lost to them now. The thief had managed to slip away, and likely they would not be able to catch him now, no matter how hard they searched. Bakura had always been resourceful and cunning, and Atem had no doubt that unless he wanted to be found, they were going to have a hard time tracking him down. At any rate, their friend —his host— was not in any immediate danger, whilst Yuugi was dying. The sensible thing to do would be to get some rest, travel back to Japan in the morning, and once there deal with the problem of the virtual world and Dark Marik. Let Bakura do what he will; they would deal with him when he chose to make his appearance amongst them again. The room of despondent companions listened without objection and agreed silently.

And so they returned to their rooms, and the two of the three Ishtars to their home, sleeping dreamlessly.

At dawn the group was bustling to pack, grabbing something to eat and moving Yuugi without causing too much harm to his infected body. Belongings were thrown in bags with little care and carried to the taxis outside. Traffic was low, and they reached the airport without any incident.

And then they were boarding the plane, looking back at Ishizu standing by herself at the gateway, waving sadly, with the Necklace shining around her neck. They did not need to ask her to know their fortunes: terrible things were lurking in the future, all eager to tear into the group. More people would be hurt before their task was done. People they knew and cared about.

As Kaiba's technologically-advanced jet lifted into the air, Ishizu was sincerely glad that they hadn't asked about the future.

She would have had to tell them that not only would there be more people hurt before Dark Marik was brought to justice, but there would be more hurt before that very night.

xXx

Many hours later, Bakura awoke from a rough needling in the back of his mind, and he turned his head in reflex to stare blearily at whatever had caught the thief's attention. His apartment complex was coming into view around the other buildings, but the taxi had all but slowed to a halt due to the congestion of cars on the road. It was likely the latter that was bothering the spirit. Yawning and stretching his still-sore muscles and joints, Bakura tapped on the plastic divider and the driver turned to look at him. "I'll stop here, thanks. My home isn't too far and I could use the walk."

"Sure, no problem." The car jerked as it turned out of the lane, slowing to stop by the sidewalk. Bakura passed the driver some cash, sliding out of the car with a well-concealed flinch. Opening the trunk, he pulled out his luggage and slammed the back shut. Luckily it was on rollers, or he would be having trouble all the way back to his apartment. There was a prodding in the back of his head again (it was nearly a physical touch, this strange heavy spiritual pressure in his mind), and he responded obediently, turning his head again.

Potholes in the sidewalk. He avoided them just in time to feel the exasperation from the thief. Bakura took the hint: he would be more careful with where he was walking, if only because he knew that he would receive no further warnings from their link.

To his relief he ran into no one familiar, and so did not have to stop once to chat until he reached his door.

The air was dry and cold in the entrance hall, and the sounds from the streets were cut out immediately as he pushed the front door shut. Bakura fumbled a moment with his dirty sneakers before dropping them on the floor along with his bags. He shed his sweatshirt and then his socks, dropping them haphazardly before removing with care the Ring from his neck and placing it respectively on the kitchen counter. For a moment he could feel something in his mind that he couldn't quite describe, like a noise with no reference for comparison. It took Bakura a minute to realize that the thief was uneasy, and was trying to deal with it in his own way, without talking to his host. He took pity on the spirit and murmured a few words of reassurance. "Relax, I'm just going to be around the corner. I'm not going to wear the Ring while I'm in the shower."

A low voice replied with a scoff. {Just remember that there is little that you can do to escape me. Our connection is too strong for you to simply walk away from it. Throw the Item away, and I will take any number of hosts to find my way back to you. And I may not be so careful with the bodies I take,}

"Or considerate," Bakura retorted.

{Hmpf.}

Hot water proved to be a bigger relief than the lack of familiar faces, and for the first time since comprehending the extent of his injuries he felt the tension drop in his shoulders, and his neck no longer hurt to twist it. Bakura removed every trace of sand and dirt from his body and took a hesitant look at his image in the foggy mirror. A sigh escaped his throat. Long sleeves and high collars for a while, it looked like.

After a while he exited the bathroom and picked up his clothing, stuffing it in a washing machine in the hall closet. The Ring returned to his neck, and the low voice returned as well. {Eat quickly. I have business to attend to.}

Bakura did as he was told, though he did make an effort to learn what the spirit was planning, but none of his questions were answered. His bad mood worsened when he later found himself shoved back into the room of his mind, door slamming shut behind him with an ominous hollow bang.

Thief King Bakura was back in control.

While his host had been cleansing himself Bakura had taken a good look at the apartment in his astral form. Though he could not travel far from the Ring, the fact that his host was some distance from it allowed him to strengthen his wavering form as he passed the bathroom door and so continue to explore. The apartment was definitely new. It was larger, a two bedroom, two bathroom with an extended kitchen and living room. There was even a deck. Whatever job he held, it was certainly making him enough to move out from under his father's influence and start paying his own way through life. Fading through one door had found him in a storage room. Now with a physical body, that was the first place he returned to now.

Scanning the shelving, Bakura flicked on a switch. "Now, landlord...if you are as sentimental as I think you are..." A white sheet was draped over a considerably large object at the back of the narrow space, and Bakura smirked as he tugged the sheet away. The Monster World game table rested on its side against the wall, legs unhooked to allow it to fold in half. Boxes by its side were open enough for him to see the various structures, landscapes and monster pieces tucked carefully away inside. Now, Bakura thought, if that game is still here, then it's possible...

He pushed aside various boxes, containing an assortment of old games, holiday decorations, spare light bulbs, and so on. Finally, he found what he was searching for. A small wooden box in the corner of room, hidden behind various other bulky objects. Bakura flipped the lid open with some anticipation, and was undeniably delighted to find his old duel monster cards inside. The card spirits responded to his presence, offering pleasant feelings that buzzed through his hand as he went through them. Finally, a deck that can throw punches, and not get knocked out in a few rounds, Bakura thought with satisfaction.

He pocketed the cards and left the room. The next thing he did was go through the luggage, choosing clothing to further layer the host body with. Next was the kitchen. His landlord would undoubtedly be nervous at finding some of his cutlery missing, but it was necessary protection until he could...procure something more adequate. A steak knife found its way into his pocket, and from the living room cupboard he altered the contents of the sewing case. When Bakura left the house, shoulder bag in one hand and deck in the other, he was practically clinking with silver.

{Please, please try to avoid fighting,}

Bakura only chuckled menacingly.

Taking long strides in an attempt to avoid cramping up the body's muscles any further, the thief took in as much of the sights around him as possible. Domino City had not changed overly much in the few years he'd been away, although the buildings had gotten taller and more cramped together, he supposed. More useless weak mortal souls scrambling to eke out a meaningful existence. Bakura could barely tolerate them.

Less than half an hour later, the Thief King reached his destination. Domino City Museum rested on its foundation behind two large obnoxious office buildings. Its doors were wide open to the public, with free entry to anyone who wished to view the various exhibits inside. There were dinosaur rooms and modern art corners, and at one time there had also been an ancient Egyptian exhibit, world renown and taking up a good deal of space within the museum. That was no more, however. Bakura took the steps up one at a time, because although he was in a bit of a hurry the body would not take much more abuse. He strode through the doors, glancing only briefly at the metal detectors, which didn't make a sound thanks to his Shadow magic, leaking out of his body like ooze. Invisible to the average person, but the effects were satisfactory to his ears. Complete silence. The rectangular machines recording his image were even more amusing than the detectors, and these he sent more thick Shadow ooze to, blurring their images for the brief moment it took him to pass. It took a lot of energy, but he had recuperated during both the first flight and the connecting flight, so he found himself still with some energy to spare.

Continuing past the information desk, he ignored the smiles of the woman sitting behind it and changed directions down a hall. At the fork he barely paused; left was the public washrooms and right was the storage and preservation rooms for delicate documents and artefacts. Employees only. He turned right, silent as a cat and twice as deadly. No one stopped him at the first door, video cameras catching only static. The employee break room was situated at the end of the hall, which was a problem if he intended to get into the preservation room. Which he did. A glance told him there was no door to the break room: likely an open space containing various seating, lockers and change rooms further down, if he had to guess. Snatches of voices carried down the hall. Two people at least.

At this point Bakura drew the steak knife.

He hid the object in his sleeve, calmly striding into the open space before the break room. The Thief King took in the situation at a glance, needing not even a second to make a decision.

His landlord was pleading for their safety, not knowing what was going on, but intelligent enough to realize he was getting into another fight despite his request. {Don't concern yourself with such things. I won't allow any more harm to come to this body.} Bakura informed his host, before shutting down their link with a snap. He needed to focus.

Two couches sat in the middle of the space facing each other, a coffee table in the centre. A small refrigerator and coffee machine leaned against the wall on the left, a little table featuring various sugars and creamers beside it. A garbage bin and a recycling bin rested on the right wall. There was two doors at the back, both washrooms. Employee number one was a lanky teen with headphones on, sitting on the couch facing in the opposite direction. He did not appear to have heard Bakura come in. Employee number two was an older man filling a coffee cup from the machine, and he turned as the thief walked in. It was he that Bakura faced now.

"Hey," the man started in confusion, "what are you doing in here—"

He could have probably provided an acceptable and detailed lie, but Bakura had no interest in either of the employees providing information to his enemies. There was only one thing for it, then. Their memories would need to be erased. And he was sure that they would not sit still while he did his work.

Lurching forward, Bakura allowed the steak knife to drop out of his sleeve as he made a grab for the man. Eyes widening, the man nearly tripped over his own feet as he ducked out of the way of Bakura's hand. Bakura spun on his heel and flipped the knife over, slamming it down onto the man's head.

A miss; he hit the shoulder instead, and then the taller individual made a grab for the knife, letting out a shout of pain and warning to the teen still on the couch. Bakura's gaze was steely, and he wasted no time with mocking words or leers. Turning the blade over again, he sliced, cutting open the man's palm. He watched as the man sweated and pulled back. Then he kicked out, but Bakura dodged easily and aimed again, ramming the knife hard against his head. Stumbling, the man cried out, and this was finally when the teen behind them got to his feet.

"What the—"

Bakura twisted to meet his new opponent, jumping onto the couch and grasping the teen, pulling him down underneath him. He barely had time to make any more noise before Bakura pulled back his arm again, letting loose a hard blow to his skull with the knife end. The teen took to unconsciousness instantly. Then all of a sudden something hard hit his head, and he rolled off of the young man, under the coffee table to get his bearings. Apparently the older man had gotten up and decided it would be highly effective for him to lob the recycling bin at his attacker. Bad move.

Drawing himself up, behind the coffee table and two pieces of furniture away from the man, Bakura considered how he might draw him in closer. His thoughts were unnecessary. The man let out a garble of insults, "There's no way you're getting away with this, you little—" but Bakura was too busy concentrating on timing to consider retaliating to this. As his victim drew in close, Bakura kicked up the coffee table and watched with satisfaction as it landed hard on the man's feet. Moving quickly, he hopped to the side and jammed his knee into the man's stomach, and finally, as he moaned in pain and tried to draw away, Bakura hit him again with the knife end. Of course this time the hit was harder and better placed, and so it managed to do its work on his thick skull. He crumpled to the ground beside the teen on the couch.

The steak knife returned to his pocket.

It took a few minutes, but they were minutes that needed to be spent erasing the memories of the two before him. Not bothering to clean up the mess that had been made (the overflowing coffee now creating a puddle on the floor, the mass of tin cans and bottles spilled out from the bin, not to mention the unconscious bodies), Bakura left the area quickly and walked towards his intended destination. The preservation room would likely be empty.

Inside, the temperature drop was noticeable, and he noticed some dials on the wall beside the door, measuring temperature and humidity. There was a switch for a fan and a dehumidifier, but they both looked like they were on timers. Tables were lined out in the middle on the room in a row, and cupboards and drawers lined the walls. It was a windowless room, meant to keep the air and temperature at the desired level all year round. There was a door to the back that led to a storage room, but Bakura wasn't interested in that. He pulled up a chair to on of the tables and plugged in a incandescent lamp, switching it on its lowest setting. At the sink he washed his hands, and then he wiped the table down. He pulled out the box from in the shoulder bag and set it under the lamp. Bakura considered how he should handle the contents, then abruptly pulled open the lid of the metal container, unlocking the Shadow magic that had kept the contents so well preserved for thousands of years. Inside rested the delicate papyrus paper, rolled into individual tubes and stacked neatly on top of each other. Half-expecting it to decay instantly, even though he had taken the necessary precautions to ensure the environment was suitable, Bakura breathed a sigh when he saw that the scrolls only proceeded to yellow and crack slightly. He delicately removed the top scroll, setting it down onto the table.

The paint and ink looked like it had been set recently, and he allowed himself a small smile at how easy the scroll was to read. A few smudges and faded areas, admittedly, but nothing terrible. Unrolling the scroll, Bakura took a paper weight and carefully placed it at the top so that he could read.

Deep in the planes that made up their shared mind, Ryou Bakura stirred from his place at his desk. The letters to his sister had been re-organized enough times, and it was starting to bother him that the connection with the thief had grown quiet. Waves of restrained and limited emotion had ceased, and the carefully concealed thoughts had stopped moving beyond the borders of their link. Anxious and wary, Bakura moved about his mind room and felt along the walls, especially around the door, trying to see if he might be able to get out. From inside the room he could do very little, perhaps gain control of a finger or two, or see through his body's eyes if he fought hard enough. But if he gained access to the hallway...if he could somehow just make it out of this room...

Surely it could be done. After all, this was his own head...not the thief's, and it wasn't his mind room either. So there had to be something that he could do to make it out. He'd already tried turning the knob, but it was incredibly stiff, and even moving it less than a millimetre took a lot of effort that he really could not expend if he wanted to stay conscious. Bakura settled next for banging on the frame, fists barely making any noise against the wood. If anything, it only made him more tired and did nothing for his situation. Turning around, he walked around the edges of his room, banging the walls and moving furniture. The thief did not seem to notice his agitation, which only made Bakura even more frustrated. Panting and pacing, Bakura tried to figure out what to do. Yuugi would know, he thought bitterly. The Pharaoh would know. Kaiba would know. Their minds were just better at problem-solving than his, and it made him upset to think that he was quite simply not capable of getting himself out of this. He'd probably need the others to beat back the Ring spirit —again— in order for him to get out. But he highly doubted that that was going to happen any time soon. Not with Dark Marik out causing more trouble than the Ring spirit. "They probably don't even know where I am," Bakura whispered sadly, dropping to the floor and curling his legs against his chest.

It was like a nightmare, only it was real, and it wasn't going away, no matter how much he wished it. Bakura could practically feel the control he had over his life slipping through his fingertips. There was nothing he could do anymore without the thief's approval. No day that he could get through without fearing a memory blank from being forced into unconsciousness, or forced to sit in his mind room, lonely and helpless and weak.

As his mind lapsed into anxiety and misery, the walls of his room grew thick, trapping him even deeper into his own head. The door nearly melted into the wall, doorknob growing rusted and utterly unbreakable. The floor became a mess of tangles of shadows and half-forgotten memories, strewn around him. And as he forced the coming tears back down, his mind room further strengthened its hold on its occupant, completely shutting him in from outside influence.

Inside the museum, the Ring spirit carried on with his studies of the ancient scrolls, entirely unaware as to the mental and emotional struggle his host was going through.

Some distance away Kaiba's jet landed in the only airport, depositing the warriors in Domino who would soon battle on the virtual playing field.

Things were about to get very ugly.


	23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

Tristan was having a headache that was wholly caused by the bickering CEO and best friend on either side of him. Atem had thought it would be best to check on Bakura's apartment in case he was still in town, although everyone admitted that it was unlikely. They still felt obligated to make sure, however, which was why he had offered to go, since Bakura had given him a spare home key in case of emergencies. Joey got dragged along because he was getting antsy in the small Game Shop living room, and Kaiba came because Kaiba thought they'd miss something with their tiny brains (he hadn't said it quite like that, but Tristan got the idea). Why Kaiba thought the thief might leave clues behind was beyond him, but he supposed it might happen, maybe he'd slip up.

They strode down the sidewalk at a quick pace, all three still occasionally yawning due to the little sleep they'd been getting recently. It was unfortunate that everything bad just seemed to happen all at once, but it couldn't be helped, and they really couldn't afford their comfort over everyone's safety. Soon they would have to enter the virtual world, and Tristan wasn't sure how they would deal with it, only that it needed to happen fast. Yuugi was getting closer to death every second spent checking details like Bakura's location. Tristan ground his teeth hard at the thought. He had no idea how Bakura had managed to claw his way out of the Afterlife, but he relished the thought of what Atem might do to throw him back in. For good.

The apartment complex came into view around another corner, and Tristan sighed wearily at Joey. "Shut up. Hey, we're here already. So stop arguing."

Starting, the two turned to look at him, as if they'd forgotten he had a say in the conversation. Kaiba took a long look at the building before them, but Joey flicked a finger at Tristan's shoulder in mock irritation. "So what do you think we'll find? Do you think Bakura even bothered to stop at the apartment, knowing that we'd think to check for him there?"

"The point is to be thorough," Kaiba calmly stated, "because if he did make a brief stop here, and we decided not to look, we would lose possibly valuable information about his whereabouts. After this current situation is rectified we'll need to deal with him, after all. Eventually." Joey made an unintelligible sound in response.

Taking the elevator to save time, they ascended a few floors and came to their friend's door. Tristan slid the key into the lock and gently pushed open the door, partially holding his breath. The three of them stared at the mess on the floor before hesitantly entering. Joey moved to speak, but both men shushed him as they tiptoed in, almost expecting the thief to leap out from around the corner.

A long minute passed, with no sounds heard coming from any part of the apartment, and so with a good deal of dawdling they moved further in, fists up and ears strained for the slightest sound. When it became clear that nothing was going to jump out at them, Joey risked a few words. "Guys, I dun' think he's here."

"Well—" was all Tristan managed to get out before Joey yelled.

"Hey! Soul stealer! You in here? Come on out!" The other two shot him angry looks, and Kaiba let out a low hiss, but their hearts stopped pounding so hard when nothing responded to Joey's calls.

So they began to search his apartment.

Tristan took the bedroom, while Kaiba peered into the spare bedroom and various closets. Joey went through the luggage still left on the floor, before examining the living room. Tristan came back empty-handed and feeling vaguely guilty for going through his friend's things to find Joey in the kitchen digging out food from the fridge. "Joey!" The blond glanced up, tart half-hanging out of his mouth as he chewed. He didn't look the slightest bit sorry.

"Look, Tristan. I haven't had a decent meal since...I dunno, in days. And Bakura's fridge has all this awesome home-cooked stuff. Come on, try a tart," he offered his friend one, and Tristan hesitated only briefly before accepting. He sighed around his dessert, and Joey scowled in return. "What now?"

"You haven't had a decent meal in days and your solution to this is dessert?" Tristan joked. Joey grinned foolishly.

There was a delicate tapping as Kaiba came into the kitchen in his expensive shoes. He gave the two of them a disgusted look as he held up an empty brown box in front of his face. "What is the meaning of this? I'm taking this task seriously, and you two are raiding your friend's fridge? This is not acceptable in the least!" He dropped the small box on the counter.

Pushing the fridge door closed, Joey did not give quite the angry response that either was expecting. "Hey, I did do research. The cabinet in the living room has a sewing box that looks like it was tore through. So there, I was doing my job." He strode over to the counter and began pulling open drawers for something to cut a roll of bread with. And frowned. "Doesn't Bakura have _any_ serrated knives?"

The other two considered this seriously. "So..." Kaiba reasoned out, "the thief came back, dropped his things, took a weapon or two and took off somewhere. He couldn't have gotten far. But what I want to know is what was in this box," he tapped the wood pointedly.

A sickening feeling lurched in Tristan's stomach as he came to a realization, while Joey seemed to reconsider putting the bread roll in his mouth. They both eyed the little brown box like it was the worst thing that he could have presented them with in that moment, and Kaiba tapped in again impatiently. Tristan swallowed the lump in his throat first. "That's where Bakura kept all of the Ring spirit's cards."

Kaiba only scowled. "I knew his deck was different. Less of the horror movie types. More magicians. And that Man-Eater Bug." He looked cheated, like the thief had failed him in the worst way, by not providing him with an acceptable duel. But Bakura, even with a deck not of his own creation, had still managed to give Kaiba a thorn in his side. It left the man with a sour taste in his mouth. Granted, he had been temperamental since his brother was missing, but that was a poor excuse for the reckless techniques that he had used during the duel. Curse that tomb robber, Kaiba thought.

"Just let me get this straight," Joey's words were muffled by the sandwich he had made himself while the others were thinking, "the Ring spirit is wandering around with his old deck, steak knives, and sewing needles? This doesn't sound good. Maybe he's out to hurt someone. Does it mean we're gonna have to postpone going into the virtual world? You think it'd be better if we went to look for him?" He swallowed the last bit of bread with a gulp.

They all shivered at the thought of the Ring spirit walking around like that, but Kaiba only shook his head. "We better get back to the others. Quickly."

xXx

Inside the room of Bakura's mind, all was not still, though he didn't notice when his room changed around him. Memories skittered past on damp legs, leaving trails of feelings that got bent up and broken on the floor. The walls groaned and creaked, shuddering with every thought and emotion that went through its occupant's head. And the door had disappeared. Completely. Where it had once been was now only an empty mess of a space, as paradoxical as that was. A blank wall that should have housed something, calm and still, dripping the remains of the door onto the floor, only for the glop to get sucked up into another memory ambling past.

The objects in the room were changing. It was subtle at first, like the wood getting paler, or small scratches forming on the glass case of the shadow box memory. But now the changes had reached ridiculous proportions, bed loosing legs and covers now equipped with mutated animals, limping and jerking off of it to join the catastrophe on the floor. One thing that remained the same, however, was the painted mural of the Monster World, curling around every wall, detailed and complete. The rolling hills, and the quaint farming community. Zorc's castle on the ceiling.

Bakura cried into his knees and saw nothing but his own mistakes, his own helplessness and foolishness.

How can we be so different? He thought in exhaustion. How can I be your reincarnation if we're so different? We're like black and white, the total essential opposite of the other, in not only our actions but also in our hearts. In the way we think. It's just not possible that we can share any likeness with each other. There's nothing that connects us aside from our soul! Nothing at all...

_"It's Bakura..."_

Flinching, he raised his head just enough to peek his eyes out at the familiar, warm voice. "Yuugi..."

A moment passed, and Bakura pieced together his mind just long enough to realize he was looking at a slowly spinning mirror, with a memory depicted on each side. He was looking through the Ring spirit's eyes, seeing his friends looking back at him in shock, as though they had just seen a ghost. A small fire crackled and sputtered behind them, and after a second Joey and Tristan lowered their fists and looked apologetic. Don't, Bakura thought childishly. Even knowing that it was a memory, he still wished that they would listen to his silent pleading. Don't relax. This isn't me. This is the spirit in the Ring...

_"What are you doing way out here, Bakura?"_

Joey looked so naïve, eyes wide out of curiosity rather than suspicion. "Don't believe him..." Bakura muttered out loud.

Unbeknownst to him, the mind room had ceased its decay and disorder. The focus Bakura put on this memory gave the mirror definition, and then a frame...and later, a stand. Various other slinking memories faded as the chaos in Bakura's mind ground to a halt, and the mutations choked on imagined air before disappearing into mist.

_"You gave us a scare sneaking around those bushes," _said the memory of Tristan.

_"Yeah, for a minute there we actually thought we had something to worry about," _Joey replied.

"Stupid, stupid," Bakura muttered half-heartedly. He wiped his face and glanced away from the mirror, for the first time noticing the horrible mess in his room. The furniture was practically destroyed, with all of his precious things scattered about the floor. "Oh..." he jumped to his feet, stunned and confused, "my mind room...it's all broken..."

He picked up a sharp piece of wood on the floor, head whirling with the information being presented to him. The room had destroyed itself. It certainly wasn't the spirit's doing, and it wasn't him...

"Or..." his heart was rapidly picking up its pace as he felt some excitement at what might have just occurred, "maybe I did do it. With my thoughts..."

Suddenly he no longer felt so helpless. With a renewed sense of determination, Bakura dropped the piece of wood by his demolished dresser and thought hard. He imagined the colour of the wood, the feel of its texture, the weight of the drawers as he opened them. And watched with delight as the dresser put itself back together.

It took him a while, but with each part of his room that he restored, Bakura felt a good deal more confident about the possibility of getting out. Each time he rebuilt a piece of furniture, he exercised his ability to manipulate his room, flipping between colours, demanding different shapes. When he was finished, he looked around at his newly improved room and smiled in accomplishment. He turned to the door of his mind room and breathed out a relaxing sigh. His hand came up, and Bakura was pleased to see that it was not shaking. He gripped the brass handle and said very quietly, "Open."

The knob twisted like it had been recently oiled, and the door he had grown to hate for so long swung back loosely on its hinges, hitting nothing behind it. Darkness kneeled before the doorway, a sharp contrast from the soft light within his room. Bakura took a step out and tentatively listened for any sound.

{...}

Breathing deeply to keep himself relaxed, Bakura edged outside and silently commanded his mind room door to remain open. The hallway of his mind was cold, and hearing nothing beyond the garbled thoughts of the thief (which he could make no sense of due to the barriers that he had put up), left him feeling vaguely on edge. Bakura slunk his way down the hall, not exactly sure what he wanted to do now that he was out of his room. It had never occurred to him to think that far ahead, considering how adamantly he had thought that it just wasn't possible. And as it had turned out it was those thoughts that had kept him so locked in. Irony at its worst. Muscles tense, he idly wondered if he could change things in the hall as much as he could in his mind room. The idea heartened him quite a bit, so he began to experiment, testing his thoughts on the floor. Blue, he demanded. The darkness did nothing but waver slightly before him, and so at length he gave up. It seemed that the hall was unshakeably unchangeable. Strangely, it did not bother him as much as it should have. This just gave him limits —rules— which Bakura liked. Boundaries on his abilities.

There was a large metal door down the hall a ways on the opposite side of his own door, which belonged solely to the Ring spirit. He dared not tread near it, lest something awful happen. Attempting to imagine what might lay in wait beyond the door, he thought deeply but could only draw a blank. Really, he hadn't the slightest idea what went on in the thief's mind. His goals. Dreams. Desires.

So what now, Bakura thought, and paced for a minute. His other half's thoughts whirled behind the walls that blocked their link. {...} Tha-thump, tha-thump. Was that his own imagined heart beating? Or his body's? He took a breath and called out with his mind, using the same sharp tapping on their link that the spirit used on him to catch his attention, but couldn't quite manage the same effect. Instead he only got the link to push against the thief's barriers, which did little. Bakura knew he had blocked communications for some reason, and he was determined to find out what it was. Thinking for a little longer, he came up with a solution.

The Ring spirit was still pouring over the documents when he saw a shimmer in the air out of a corner of his eye. Turning, he stilled in shock at the sight of the astral form of his host, standing by his side and taking in his surroundings with all the interest of a young child.

Both Bakuras took a long look at each other, eyes narrowing identically and backs straightening as if preparing for a fight. The thief spoke out first. "So I see you have finally figured out how to leave your mind room," he said tauntingly.

His host lifted his chin slightly as his mouth thinned into a straight line. "For a while I struggled. I felt trapped, and I panicked. But now that I finally understand how my mind works I know I can change where I am when I'm not in control and also have some say in what happens to my body," he replied sternly.

Laughing briefly, the Ring spirit smirked at what could have been his twin for all their physical similarities. "I'm afraid not, my dear landlord. It may be so that whenever I push you into your mind room when I take control that you can now leave it, but that still changes nothing. Any attempts to interfere with my business will be dealt with accordingly. And should I decide I do not want you knowing about what I am up to, or if you bother me in some way, I can easily send your mind into unconsciousness. I have no qualms about giving you more blanks in your memory. Truly, it takes little to no effort on my part to do so." Turning back to the scrolls on the desk, he placed one back into the metal box and withdrew another while his host fidgeted and mourned his lack of witty retorts. "Now, allow me to concentrate. Speak little or you may regret it later."

Astral Bakura left the thief's side and wandered about the room, testing out his new form. He tried walking, before realizing it was almost as pointless as trying to breathe. Floating was a little difficult to get used to, and when his mind decided it didn't believe it was possible he found himself dropping back to the floor instantaneously. After a while he went over to the door, and peered out of the tiny window, still wondering where they were. Two uniformed employees were walking down the hall towards them. For a moment he considered letting the thief be caught, but changed his mind when he thought what might be done to the two innocents once he'd been cornered. "There are two people coming down the hall," he reluctantly offered the information with a sigh.

A short glance at him was all he got in response, but the thief did take heed and began carefully returning the scrolls to their container. Closing the lid, the thief flipped the latch and was satisfied with the runes that flashed once on the sides of the box. Shadow magic protected the papyrus once more from turning into dust. Sliding the box into the bag with one hand and turning the lamp off with the other, he dropped to the floor and made his way under a desk. Bakura followed him, much to the thief's amusement.

{You cannot be seen or heard except by me,}

He huffed in response. {I can't help it, I'm used to having my real body.}

They huddled in silence as the two people came down the hall. For a minute or two there was a lot of noise; Bakura couldn't make out a lot of it and the thief didn't seem to care. Then the noise dissipated, and they left the safety of their hiding place, half-crawling and half-walking towards the door. The Ring spirit turned the handle and peered out of the crack, and, seeing no one, made a dash down the hall. Apparently whoever had come had taken a look at the mess and had decided to go get help. Astral Bakura stared with wide eyes as they passed, at the two people out cold in the break room. {Spirit?} He mumbled uncertainly.

{Unconscious. Be quiet.}

Continuing down the hall, the thief spotted an emergency exit sign down by the bathrooms and moved quickly towards the door. An alarm was attached to the door, but that fell silent as his magic choked up the system. A blast of wind hit the thief's face, and then they were outside in the parking lot.

The Ring spirit took a detour down two streets and back up one before deciding it was safe to head home, and Bakura followed, contemplating what was going on. He couldn't read ancient Egyptian, otherwise he would have been eyeing the scrolls over the thief's shoulder and figuring out what was so important about them. Both of them were quite tense as they returned to their apartment.

Something was dreadfully wrong.

Bakura stared at the mess of his things on the floor, and glared at the thief accusingly. "It wasn't me." A pause. "Well, most of it," snapped the spirit, "though I have no need to explain myself to you regardless." He added in a low mutter, kicking off his shoes before going through the apartment, room by room. They found pictures knocked over and boxes opened in the closet. Oddly, there was also food missing from the fridge and dirty dishes in the sink. At this point Bakura broke out into a smile and relaxed.

"Nothing's wrong," he explained to the thief, "it was just Joey and Tristan, probably coming over to see..." he stopped speaking and the smile left his face. A exasperated noise left the thief's throat.

"That is exactly what is wrong, dear host. I can't have them finding me just yet,"

Bakura gave him a sad look and wandered about his apartment, wishing he had his real body back so he could clean up the mess. His other half was busy collecting clothes and other miscellaneous things (he wasn't really paying attention) and stuffing it in a backpack. It bothered Bakura that he still didn't know what was going on, so he decided to test the boundaries between them. "Can't you just tell me what you're planning? It's not like I could stop it, right?" He suggested, hopeful on the first question and apprehensive on the second.

Glancing up from the bag, the Ring spirit gave him a cool look. And then he appeared to think for an instant, before replying, "We're going on a treasure hunt, Landlord," that taunting smirk was really starting to get on Bakura's nerves.

"...I was never good at treasure hunting."

If at all possible, the thief smirked even wider. "Then you're certainly going to like this one, since I will be doing most of the hunting."

Rubbing his fingers together, Bakura looked annoyed and fretful. "I'm not going to like this at all, am I?"

A sharp laugh. "Not in the least."

xXx

Taking long strides up to the computers where the two Kaiba brothers and Tristan were situated, Atem leaned over the console and took in the upside down kanji characters, his mind flipping them over easily. "I take it that some of your programs were successfully integrated into the system?" He enquired of the elder Kaiba, who nodded curtly.

"I was able to rewrite enough of this to make sure that when we enter the virtual world, we will all arrive at the same location. Unfortunately that was all I was able to do. The coding is...particularly extensive and detailed. Simply changing one little thing has enormous effects on the rest of the system, so I had to do a lot of testing to make sure I had it right." Kaiba explained, brushing his bangs away from his face enough to rub his temples. He had worked long hours and was now was only just feeling the effects of it. It was important that they at least try to rewrite the programming of the virtual world, so that they might go into it on somewhat more even ground with Dark Marik. Therefore; Kaiba had stayed up half the night researching his adoptive father's designs, before throwing himself into redesigning some key portions of the world. The monster deletion had not gone over so well, and neither had the weather enhancement. Luckily his group entry demand of the world had been accepted, or he would have had nothing to show for his hard work. It bothered Kaiba greatly that compared to all of the effort that he had to go through just to change one simple element, all Dark Marik had to do was flick his Rod and make a wish. Atem would argue that it was more complex than that, but Kaiba didn't see how.

Taking a glance around the virtual pod room of Kaiba's downtown lab complex, Atem had to admit that he was impressed. The virtual pods looked greatly advanced as compared to the previous models that he had used. Less wires and cords overall. Joey sat on the edge of one pod, and Marik next to him, both eyeing the inside warily. Kaiba would also come with him, and hopefully the four of them would be strong enough to stop the darkness inside the world.

In a room down the hall the equipment, computers, and shoddily finished pods from the warehouse were laying in a heap behind a heavily locked door. Kaiba had sent some of his most trusted employees to confiscate all of it, and they had returned successful. Now with his original designs back (that they had taken from the hotel room), along with everything from the warehouse, they only had possibly two more pods that were not in Kaiba's control. The one that had belonged to Serenity, and the one that had Dr. Yoshida's body in it. Wherever those might be.

Clicking and tapping noises filled the room as Mokuba's low voice guided Tristan through the motions of checking brain waves on a blank screen. Atem returned to his weary thoughts. He was there specifically for Dark Marik, and so were the others, but he had a feeling that each of them had differing reasons behind this. Marik looked like he was fuming with anger, while Joey just looked racked with guilt. Kaiba on the other hand appeared determined and single-minded. All of them were a bit emotionally charged, and it was up to him to remain composed and think through this strategically, even though he couldn't stop thinking about Yuugi, lying pale and breathless in his bed at home. He had Odion and Solomon to watch him, of course, but _he_ wasn't there, and that's what mattered. Atem felt strangely hollow without his partner by his side, like he was missing something vitally important. Like a limb. Only the physical pain wasn't there to affect him, so he got an odd phantom ache in his mind instead. Silence. It was almost like loneliness.

After hearing about the finds at Bakura's, Atem had considered the postponement, but his concerns for Yuugi still outweighed his concerns for whomsoever got in the thief's way. As he had explained it to Joey, they could check around town, wandering blindly and hoping to catch a glimpse of him, or they could do something to stop Dark Marik. When he had put it like that they had all agreed. It did not take an exorbitant amount of time to convince everyone, which made him relieved. The Ring spirit would come after him soon enough anyway. He wouldn't be able to resist —they had too much of a past for him to just let it go. Atem just prayed that they would run into the thief after Dark Marik was defeated, and not right in the middle of it.

Mokuba was explaining in some detail how the virtual world worked to Tristan, though the majority of the explanation flew over his head. Each dial and screen was connected to something different, and he made and effort to learn this, but otherwise just nodded blearily at Mokuba's speech. After both Kaibas felt like he had learned enough to help Mokuba with the monitoring while they were in the world, they gave the go-ahead and the four of them entered pods. Marik was the only one unfamiliar with the pods, so Tristan came down to point out how he should lie and where his deck went. Then he returned to the consoles beside Mokuba, and the two of them started up the system. Atem tried to calm his beating heart. The glass lid fell down over his head, and the black visor over his face. He could see Joey and Marik's pods on one side of him, and Kaiba's pod on the other, but his vision was poor. The Puzzle clinked mutely against its chains.

Although he had wanted to leave it with Yuugi, to keep the Shadows at bay, in reality it was necessary to take it with him into the virtual world. It was more than likely that the Puzzle's powers would stop the powers of the Rod, rendering them useless against him. And provided that everyone stayed close, it would help prevent their monsters from being rewritten out of the world before they had a chance to use them. Atem was sure that it would keep the virtual world from attacking him too. The cold in the ice fields wouldn't be as bad, and the winds in the air would be decreased. It would be a huge advantage and it would be foolish to leave it behind. Still, it made him even more troubled as he thought about Yuugi.

The pod was starting to kick in, fans whirring and sides buzzing with electricity. His vision grew dim, and all of a sudden he was falling into a green and purple vortex, senses on overload as he was pushed to believe that he was in a different world.

There was a blinding flash.

Landing with a jolt, knees bending on reflex, Atem breathed in pungent air and started to straighten, before he was abruptly thrown to his side. A loud "Oof," followed, and then Joey groaned, dragging himself up out of the dirt. He looked over at Atem, who looked perplexed at his friend's apparent clumsiness. "Sorry, buddy." He grinned sloppily and offered Atem a hand, who allowed himself to be pulled to his feet.

The vortex in the sky opened again, and Marik and Kaiba joined them, expertly landing on their feet, as though they had been doing this for years. One had had some practice, of course, but this didn't excuse Marik. Joey scowled good-naturedly.

They got a good look around, and were decidedly bothered by the scenery.

Apparently they had landed in a swamp. The ground beneath them was a short patch of hard dirt compared to the rest of the clearing, which was slick with mud and weeds. Great big thorn-covered plants and crooked trees blocked their view, and the sky was a ruddy grey, sun blotched out behind a mess of clouds. And the insects. Oh, the insects! So many different creatures zipped about their heads and stung and crawled up their clothes that Atem let out a rush of magic in irritation, watching as the air cleared before them and the black disgusting bugs flew away. Joey stopped swatting his clothing and Marik pulled his hood off. Kaiba stood perfectly still, but breathed out a very slow breath. "I don't recall there being a swamp in your description of the virtual world," Marik shot at Kaiba in a emotionless tone.

Kaiba eyed his duel disk and casually activated it. "Your psychotic half must have degraded the original design. We should be in the middle of the forest south-east of the ice fields at the moment. I assume our position is still the same, however; the landscape has been altered." Marik ground his teeth at the words 'psychotic half', but otherwise said nothing.

Taking a step forward, Joey groaned as his sneaker sunk deep into the slop of reeds and algae. It got tangled as he tried to pull it out, and he fell over backwards with another groan. "This stuff is thick," he complained in an off-handed tone to the three standing skeptically behind him.

Drawing the top card of his deck, Kaiba summoned Hitotsu-Me Giant. "Back up, Wheeler." Joey obeyed, scrambling backwards and getting to his feet. The Giant followed the line of Kaiba's pointed finger and raised its large, pale green four-fingered hands. "Clear a path for us to walk through," Kaiba commanded. And then the Giant swept forward, arms swinging to snap the branches and rough bushes in its way. The mud and water at its feet could not be helped, but at least it was an improvement. Kaiba followed behind with Atem at his side, and Joey and Marik trailed behind them.

Sliding and slipping through the slosh at their feet, they used each other as handholds, grabbing elbows when their feet hit something unknown beneath the surface and the swamp tried to drag them under. The Giant of Kaiba's paused occasionally, staring back at the group which was having trouble behind it. Their feet were so much smaller than its, so their balance was thrown off more easily. The going was slow, and it was wet and dirty.

At one point they reached what used to be a pond, but what was now the centre of the swamp, deep brownish-green water tripping the trees on the edge of the shore and causing them to fall in. These trees now floated in the pond, bent and snapped and half-submerged. Here the Troll stopped. The group looked out at the pond, and then they looked to either side, and after some minutes they looked at each other. What was now an ugly disaster of a pond had swallowed up a good portion of the forest on either side, and it looked like they were in for a long trek if they wanted to go around. A simple solution would be to use a flying monster to clear the trees and fly across, and hopefully fly all the way to Noah's castle. So this is what they attempted.

In a crash of lights and sounds, Red-Eyes Black Dragon and Blue-Eyes White Dragon appeared before them, wings flapping hard to keep them hovering. In another heartbeat Kaiba's Giant was gone, and then the four of them clamoured on top of the dragons. Marik climbed on behind Joey, and Atem behind Kaiba. There was a rush of wind howling and water slapping against the sodden banks as the two monsters picked up the pace of their wing beats, climbing higher into the air. Blue-Eyes was the heavier monster, and so she was gaining altitude a bit more slowly than Joey's leaner monster. They reached the tops of the trees within a minute, and were left stunned as the bark creaked and cracked, before suddenly the trees shot up several metres above them.

Joey and Kaiba were not to be dissuaded so easily, and encouraged their monsters ever higher. The air rushed past and whipped their damp clothing, with the wind whistling in their ears. The ever-growing branches and trunks of the ruined swamp trees could not hope to keep up with the speed of the dragons' wings, and within another minute they had reached free air. They began to change direction, aiming for the canyon that they could see in the distance. But suddenly Joey was waving his arms widely, speaking loudly to be heard over the high winds above the swamps. "Above us!"

The four of them looked up. Swooping downward with increasing speed was a contingent of flying duel monsters, the distance making them look like a speckled cloud of twisting shapes. Atem swallowed hard. Marik was yelling at them.

"Go, go, go!"

Their dragons dived.

Skimming the treetops, Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes roared, spewing out lightning and fire to keep the groping trees at bay, destroying the swamp in a brilliant blaze of white and red. Brambles were liquefied and water turned into mist as the hot energy flowed out over the swamp and wiped out everything in its path. Trees lit on fire, and smoke starting pouring like rain into the atmosphere. The two dragons zoomed overhead like bullets, with the deadly swarm of monsters above them. Atem looked down at the fire below them, which was slowly becoming more wild and dangerous as it consumed more of the rotten and easily combustible plant life around it. The smoke had gotten thick and dark, like an inky grey that blotted out the landscape below them. He was beginning to have trouble seeing into the swamp. And yet the trees still reached out for them, branches lurching and shooting straight up into the air, causing Blue-Eyes to lash out with her tail before crunching another branch between her powerful jaws.

Flames licked the sky and became all-consuming. Beside Kaiba's dragon, Red-Eyes dodged another branch that zipped past it and smashed into a duel monster high above. They were closing in, minutes away, no, seconds. Joey and Marik turned to look at him, and he knew what flashed through their eyes. He nodded in determination, before turning to Kaiba in front of him. "Kaiba!" The wind was terrible. The screeching and growling of the beasts above them, combined with the snapping and cracking of the bark below them, along with the howling of the air, was really making it difficult to hear himself speak.

His friend was eyeing the monster horde above them with some sense of awe and panic. Atem shook him roughly with one hand, and Kaiba jerked in his seat. "What is it?" He shouted back.

"We have to make a dive into the trees to avoid the flying monsters!" Atem explained.

"What?"

Leaning in closer, Atem shouted directly into his ear. "I said we have to make a dive!"

Kaiba shouted back at him, but he couldn't hear over the blast of lightning suddenly let loose from his dragon. They lurched on her back, and then Kaiba was giving his dragon a hard tap, asking her to take them lower. Blue-Eyes complied. The last he saw of the others was the Red-Eyes nearly flipping over, branches catching in its ebony wings, tearing through them with the sound of bones snapping.

...And then the smoke swallowed them whole.


	24. Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Sneakers slapping against the pavement hard, and air getting in beneath his shirt despite the layers, the Ring spirit bolted down a side alley and cursed at the sounds of the police behind him. It was the second time that he had been on the bad end of a chase since returning to the living world, and he was getting quite sick of it. Not that he wasn't used to it, or anything. Over three thousand years of being a thief had certainly landed him in more than one situation like this. What was problematic was that his host body had not been given much time to recover, and he was feeling the effects of the aches, pains, and muscle tension more than ever.

After he had left the apartment, he had only just made it down the street when an officer had spotted him and demanded he come in for questioning. Apparently, they had been asking around the museum, and Bakura was the only one the woman at the information desk had mentioned that hadn't been on a security camera. That alone made him suspicious. Granted, since they had no lead on who this person might possibly be, it was only through blind luck that they had come across him on the street. It was because of his hair, he was sure of it. No one else that he knew had hair like this. Uniqueness was not a desirable trait in a thief.

Bakura had tried to lie and cajole the officer out of taking him down to the station for questioning, and when it became clear that it wasn't working he gave up and knocked the person unconscious. In the middle of the street. Which probably hadn't been his greatest idea. No one had been around to see it, though, or the subsequent mind wiping process, save perhaps for the two vehicles driving in the opposite direction. But when the officer had received a call on the radio and could not respond, back-up was sent. How was Bakura supposed to know that that was standard procedure?

Hence the chase. In which he was tiring horribly. He was tired before he had even started running, which was definitely saying something. What he thought gave him an advantage was his intimate knowledge of all of the back roads and alleys of the city, but it occurred to him later that the police had access to maps. And communications with people who knew how to read them. This was bothersome.

He was panting hard, and the air was doing wonders to his throat, making it itch in the most inconceivable of ways. His host had been thrown into unconsciousness after he had angrily protested that the officer had been the third person that Bakura had knocked out that day. To which he had replied that he had considered just stabbing the knees and rendering the person incapable of chasing him, which did not go over too well with him. It was oddly quiet in his mind, and his thoughts vibrated into nothingness, against the link that echoed only his own thoughts back at him. He thought he might have heard the murmurs of a dream on the other side of the link, and that made him smile slightly. Let his landlord dream peacefully while he solved his current problem. With a suitable distraction he might not even think to ask him what had happened when he woke up. Well, yes, that was unlikely.

The backpack was banging against his spine painfully as he ran, hitting old bruises and making new ones, but he had no time to adjust it. Bakura rounded another corner, hands skidding against the rough brick as he tried to execute a perfect turn without slowing down.

There was an officer right in front of him, baton raised and hand out. He was a stern-looking older man, a dark moustache doing little to hide his scowl. It also accentuated the fact that he was bald under his hat. Bakura locked his kneecaps and shifted his weight, looking for an opening. "Put your hands on your head and get down on your knees. You're under arrest for the assault of an officer, with probable charges of assault on two others at the Domino Museum. I'm taking you in for questioning," the man commanded.

"Now, now, don't be hasty," Bakura said smoothly, "you have no idea who you're dealing with."

"I said get down on your knees! Now!"

Faster than the eye could follow, Bakura whipped out two needles from somewhere on his body and flung them at the man. The officer only saw Bakura's hand move, and so was entirely unprepared for the sharp, thin metal to embed several centimetres into his skin. He cried out in pain, dropping the baton and looking down in shock at the twin needles stuck in his wrist. Blood flowed out in spurts from the plugs. Then he heard a scuffle, and glanced up just in time to see Bakura shoot past him and continue running down the street. The officer gasped and reached for his radio just as the ancient thief disappeared from view.

Bakura hit the wharf in record time, doing a speed incredibly damaging to his legs and just as painful. He knew he was running out of options, and really should be finding a place to hide, but his pursuers were just too quick. His lungs were inflating and deflating in a shuddering rhythm that he wanted to slow, but the pace that he had set was too demanding. The water at the docks reared up before him at an alarming rate. Warehouses decreased in number on either side. He was beginning to make out details of boats tied to the dock. Risking a look behind him, Bakura was angry to see three men in blue uniforms bolting after him. How had they managed to keep up? It was absolutely ridiculous. "Halt!" Smirking, he thought that at least it was better than the ever unimaginative 'stop, thief'. Granted, they didn't know that he was a thief.

Head whirling and mouth dry, he nearly jumped straight up when he heard the loud crack of a gun firing. Turning to confirm it, Bakura stared down the barrels of three guns and for the first time since the chase started, pulled out the Ring lying warm against his skin.

_Bang_.

Dropping into a roll, the bullet whizzed past his shoulder and snapped against the concrete. Bakura turned again to get another look at the angle of their guns, and that is when he fell feet first into the ocean.

Salty water closed in around him.

The Ring spirit hadn't even had the time to draw in a breath before he plunged under, and his throat burned as he sucked ocean water into his lungs. He was choking, then, a deep cold slinking into his bones from the water. Vision blurry and lungs screaming, Bakura looked to the surface, kicking upward, but then stopped as he heard guns crack overhead. They were _still_ shooting at him?

Forced into the figurative corner, Bakura kicked sideways instead, still needing to breathe desperately. In a last ditch effort to get himself out of the situation, he called upon the powers of the Ring, and upon the Shadow Realm. Demanding. Shadows came through the cracks in reality, dripping into the water to answer the Item bearer. Shadows deepened below him, slipping through the cracks between their parallel Realms and crashing upwards, tightening their hold on Bakura. Shadows sucked inwards and outwards.

Without warning Bakura burst into the Shadow Realm through the doorway that he had created underwater.

Hacking loudly, he collapsed onto the 'ground' of Shadow water and spewed up the salt water in his lungs. His eyes were hot and red with irritation from the water, and he blinked rapidly as he coughed. Finally, after he had regained his breath, Bakura dropped his head to the floor and groaned. Black Shadow clouds in all directions. The Ring spirit had dragged himself into the Shadow Realm, and he was not sure that that had been his intention.

After several moments he decided that he would be quite happy to wait out the pursuit in the Shadow Realm. It was a level of the Realm much higher than the ones he was normally thrown into after the loss of a duel, and so he was confident that he would not have too much to worry about. Though there was darkness all around him, like a black void of space, there were no spirits to haunt him, and no monsters waiting to slice him apart. Bakura turned one eye beneath him and did not like the fact that the ground looked exactly like the sky, but it couldn't be helped. Hopefully he would not lose his sense of perception in here, or he would end up upside down when he decided to exit. Or...

Grinning lightly, Bakura got to his feet and winced at the flames in his joints. Ignoring it as best he could, he began walking in the direction that the docks would be in (there was no up, down, right, or left in the Realm). When he brought himself back out his position would correspond to where he might be if he had been walking on real ground. Assumedly. Bakura had never done this before.

He walked for a while, and was pleased to notice some difference in the Shadows when he hit the docks. The ground became harder, and less like sloshing though soup. After a few minutes of walking, Bakura took a chance and called upon the Realm again, watching it suck inward like a sponge, and then all of a sudden he was looking at a crack in the world. A bright line of trees and buildings shone out between bits of darkness, and Bakura took one breath, before stepping out into it. The Realm closed behind him.

Thief King Bakura stared with wide eyes at his location, a quiet street in the business district, perhaps a good hour away from the wharf.

And then he smiled.

xXx

"Marik! Hey! Get up, we've got some problems!"

Sputtering on mud and smoke, Marik forced his eyes open and stared blearily at the sight of Joey's wild features above him. The man looked like a mess: his clothing was torn, and burnt, and his hair was a slop on his head. A thin line of blood was visible on his cheek. Marik pushed himself to his knees and spit into the reeds. "What is it?"

"Well, my Red-Eyes is gone, an' although we got rid of the monsters in the sky for the moment, we still gotta deal with this swamp." Joey coughed into his muddy sleeve, blinking tears out of his eyes.

Flames roared behind him, smoke drifting with the air currents now being let into the swamp since the trees were all but destroyed and could no longer offer protection from the wind. Marik eyed the smoke and fire leaping up into the sky and could see that it was holding the contingency of monsters at bay. They whirled and dipped around the smoke, snarling at how close their prey was and yet how far out of reach. But even though the flames were providing relief on one front, they were also a danger to them, trapping them in the swamp and threatening to burn them to death. The two of them got to their feet.

"We have to find Kaiba and the Pharaoh," Marik said urgently.

Joey nodded and struck out a finger behind Marik. "I'm pretty sure Blue-Eyes took off in that direction when they ducked into the trees," he coughed again.

Speaking no further, they took off running through the wet mush of a ground at their feet. All they needed was to see one glimpse of their companions and they would know they were heading in the right direction. They kept their eyes peeled for them, eyes brimming with tears from the harsh smoke. The fire was gaining on them at an incredible rate, devouring the bushes behind them and leaping forward, stretch by stretch. Abruptly Marik's foot hit an underwater tree root and he tripped, landing hard in the mud.

Without even asking if he needed help, Joey stumbled his way back towards him and offered him a hand up. Marik reached upward gratefully, and Joey pulled hard. "Ah! Hold on —I think my foot's tangled in roots." He reached under and shred the offending plant parts to pieces, digging his foot out.

The ground underneath him gave way, sucking inward with a sickening plop. Alarmed, Marik pushed Joey back with his free hand, just as the swamp ate his legs up to his knees, pulling him downward. "Sink hole, Joey, stay back!" He shouted in warning.

Frantically, Joey searched wildly for a branch to pull Marik out. He found one long enough, and held it out. Marik's palms slid on its wet surface, but he held on hard and Joey began pulling. Mud making awful gurgling noises as Joey worked to get him out, his weight combined with the pull of the mud made it impossible for him to gain any leeway. Marik cursed in Arabic and Joey cursed equally as loudly in Japanese. Eventually the branch snapped.

The fire drew closer, roaring in triumph at each thing it disintegrated. Both of them were coughing hard now, arms over their mouths as they wished badly for some clean air to breathe. Then the flames were close enough to attack, and so they did, nipping at Joey's feet as he scrambled backwards to avoid them. "No!" Neither was sure which of them was shouting.

"Swords of Revealing Light!"

"Fissure!"

An intense crack split the ground between the fire and themselves, leaving a wide gap that the fire had trouble reaching over. Then, dozens of radiant white swords burst into existence, hovering above the gap. The fire roared up to the swords and hit the barrier fiercely, red-hot and sizzling, but the barrier held.

Kaiba and Atem were running over to their position, looking just as much the muddy mess as them. "Are you two all right?" Atem was crying out.

Joey gave a shout back. "Marik's stuck in a sink hole!"

"So use your cards, Wheeler! Stop wasting time!" Kaiba snapped at him as they reached their location.

Gurgling quietly, the swamp drug Marik under another few inches and he groaned. "I would really appreciate it if one of you thought of something pretty quickly." He had dealt with sink holes in Egypt; the sand worked much faster than mud and would take a matter of seconds to pull someone under. Keeping himself perfectly still, he breathed evenly and waited for their help.

Joey's mind madly thought through his deck, and finally he drew some cards and summoned a monster. "Go, Axe Raider!" The warrior gave a shout as he stepped out of the blinding light coming from the duel disk. Pushing another card into a trap slot, the golden armour clad Raider gained a new weapon and shouldered his axe, and Joey called out a command. "Use Kunai With Chain and drag Marik out of the sink hole!" Swinging the Kunai expertly over his head, Raider dropped it into a perfect position and waited for Marik to grab on. Once he had, the muscle-bound warrior took only three steps backwards and then Marik was out, dripping and coughing.

They had to get out of this smoke. Taking off as one, they ran in-between the trees, leaving the fire still barred behind the powerful Swords of Revealing Light barrier and the wide gap Fissure had created. Safe for the moment.

It took a long while of trudging through the muck, even with Axe Raider ripping apart everything in their way. But eventually they made it out of the swamp, muddy, irritated, stiff and tired. They had reached the edge of the ice fields, a large expanse of ocean water turned into penguin territory, or so it used to be some time ago. Yuugi had described a single rowboat and a mess of intelligent duel monsters working in tandem, so they knew they had to be careful.

All four of them stared out at what they had to get across and said nothing.

Massive blizzards blew over the fields, swirling like twisters in some places and just blowing hard in others. What little water there had been before was now covered completely in ice, with thick layers of snow overtop. The snow piled like the sand dunes in Egypt, forming dips and trenches, steep inclines and sharp drops. A rumbling sounded in the distance, and then piles of snow thundered down one such drop, rolling down like a miniature avalanche into the valley below. In the sky the hordes of flying monsters peppered the atmosphere like an infection, screeching with the warped voices created from wind and the subsequent echoing below.

So they stared and thought to themselves, and said nothing.

xXx

Sitting in the dungeon of Noah's castle, Dark Marik tapped the prison bars and looked down on the small child lying on the cot inside. He slept deeply, not able to awaken due to the Item's magic that swept through his imagined body. The virtual world had informed him of four new minds inside it, and soon he would use this child against the four who had entered, should they make it past the destroyed landscape that he had created, of course. Dark Marik had no doubt that at least one of them would fall to the deadly swarms of monsters, and maybe another to the weather. The third he wished to tear apart with his own hands, and then maybe leave the last one for his mind slave to take care of. He was greatly amused by these thoughts, though he could not put faces or names to these plans because he wasn't exactly sure who had come for the brat. There would be Kaiba, surely, and maybe Joey again, considering how poorly he had done the first time he had come to save an innocent. That left two others. Friends of the first two, he imagined. But who?

Mokuba? That was probably unlikely, considering Kaiba would not want to put him in danger. But perhaps he had been convinced to let him come. After all, Noah was a adoptive brother to both of them.

Was it Duke, maybe? That dice player who had joined them the first time? No, it couldn't be, he wasn't a duelist. Neither was Tristan, and certainly not Téa. They were all just cheerleaders, and nothing to worry about. But then who were the last two?

The only people left that his mind could come up with were Marik, Ishizu, and Odion.

Ishizu, his darling sister with the Necklace, out to fix her brother's mistakes once and for all. He'd send her to the Shadows, just like all the rest. And Odion, who used to be able to contain his dark thoughts, but no longer. Odion would fall just as hard as Ishizu.

And Marik. The other him. The person he used to be before he was let go. If he destroyed that first piece of himself...then, finally, he would have his own name, wouldn't he? He would no longer be known as the dark half, but a whole person; he would be Marik renewed. The hate and despair finally given his own body. Of course the body already belonged to him, and it was foolish if his previous personality thought that he could keep it from him. Dark Marik planned on taking it back, because he had had quite enough of his current form, a form that didn't fit his soul. Only one body was truly suitable for him. And it was plausible that it was coming right for him. Perfect.

He leaned back into the cold stone of the dungeon wall and listened to the even breathing of the child's imagined body. To the helpless dreams trapped inside his mind.

A lone penguin offering a trapped girl a rope, leading her out of a cave full of Hitotsu-Me Giant monsters.

Judge Man cheating in a court room, wrecking havoc with a duelist's Graceful Dice.

Such nonsense dreams. Such drivel. Dark Marik would pit Noah against the group if only to watch his enslaved mind scream.

Four outsiders have reached the ice fields, said the program.

Let loose the twisters, he commanded.

The Millennium Rod shone brightly.

xXx

Walking in single file, the group of four held on tight to each other's hands and trudged through the snow, with Joey's Flame Swordsman leading the way. He had been equipped with Salamandra, a powerful sword of fire meant to increase the heat the Swordsman already gave off with each swing. Snow melted where he swung and sliced, giving them a small amount of room in which to walk behind the Swordsman. The blizzard was thick, too thick: they could not see an inch beyond their noses, and this was more than perilous for the duelists intending on making it through in one piece. Flame Swordsman was having the same trouble, choosing the path he thought best and easiest to work through, though he could not be sure. They were sure that the cold was intense beyond them, but the heat of the Swordsman combined with the magic coming from the Puzzle was thankfully enough to keep them relatively unfrozen. Relatively. Each still shook from the biting freeze working its way under their skin, teeth chattering as they huddled close to each other. Each had lost track of how long they'd been walking. It was a nightmare.

Each would have been disturbed to know that they'd been walking for less than half an hour.

Without warning the Swordsman came to a halt. Joey risked pulling away from Atem's hand behind him to walk around his warrior, shoes sinking deep into the snow as he struggled to find the problem.

In front of them was a drop, straight down into an unknown darkness.

Joey fought his way through the snow back to Atem (how had it managed to pile back up so quickly?), where he shouted in his ear, "We hit a chasm! We gotta go around somehow!"

Atem nodded, pointing right, which was a slow, downward slope. It would provide them with less to work through. Further along was a twister, which they needed to avoid at all costs. Who knew how far they'd be thrown back if they succumbed to its harsh winds. Flame Swordsman turned obediently, slicing a new way through the snow. They descended slowly, feet slipping on the ice and causing them to bump into the person in front of them. The pile up would cause Flame Swordsman to stop as they righted themselves, waiting as they got their weight off of his back so that he could start moving again.

A distant thunder echoed through the air, and the group turned their eyes skyward, though they could see nothing beyond the white fuzz that was everywhere. The thunder grew louder, and Kaiba was the first to consider that the cause was not from a lightning storm. He gave the tomb keeper in front a him a large shove. "Avalanche!"

Marik pushed Atem, who pushed Joey, and then the Flame Swordsman picked up his pace, working his sword left and right in furious strokes. The snow was not as well cleared as before, and it left them with more to work through, but they sped up nonetheless.

The thunder continued down the fields, and suddenly it was under their feet, vibrating through their knees and up their spines. Their teeth chattered harder, and their grip on each other tightened noticeably. Still their speed increased. Now the Swordsman was dragging his sword through the snow behind him, leaving a thin trail with which to work with, but allowing them to run faster so long as they picked up their feet. Rumbling issued down the valley, rumbling so great it felt like the entire virtual world was quaking.

And then the avalanche was visible behind them.

It was becoming increasingly difficult to run, because as they picked up speed they were forced to run through higher piles of snow left behind by the Swordsman. Their legs were tiring and their lungs were filled with icy air, and as they had just exited from the swamp and the smoke, it wasn't any wonder why they were all coughing.

At length they came to the conclusion that the drop that they had stumbled across continued for a good distance, and that they would not be able to outrun the avalanche if they continued to run straight down. In seconds it was going to catch up with them. Atem summoned Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast as well as Curse of Dragon, and the four of them climbed on quickly. Flame Swordsman disappeared from the field. The rushing snow was now an instant away, and it piled upon itself like a great ocean wave, blocking out the sky overhead and cursing them with its strength. The world disappeared around them. Rather than fly up higher to avoid the snow, where they would be attacked by duel monsters or dragged into the twisters, they decided to drop down into the gap in the ice.

They dived.

The rushing snow tumbled above them, crushing the wings of both monsters, sending them dropping like flies from a fly swatter. Snow filled the gap and continued on overhead, billowing out in thick sheets and covering the fields in an even thicker layer than before. Perhaps there really wasn't any water left underneath. Maybe it was all snow.

Chimera and Curse of Dragon, though they could fly no longer, still used their broken wings to slow their descent, and as they hit the white beneath them they proved to be a buffer for the hard impact, jolting the passengers only somewhat in their landing. Above them the snow continued past in a mad frenzy, but the thunder did not seem to be even close to stopping. Whiteness fell upon them heavily, and so the four fighters dragged themselves up just as their mounts dissipated into nothingness. A rough hill formed between the group, Marik and Joey on one side where they had landed, and Kaiba and Atem on the other. Shouting to each other, they were forced to abandon the location as each bolted for the safety of the overhanging ice. Various caves and hollows formed where the ice had thickened and then broken off, and they dove into these without caution. Snow covered them completely, packing them under a dozen metres as it piled up against the cliff wall.

At length the roaring stopped.

Panic was the first thought. Not only were they now trapped under the snow, but they were separated from each other. Kaiba and Atem stared around at their patch of free air, barely five feet of space, with the cliff wall behind them and the snow in front and above them. Atem started shouting first.

"Marik! Joey! Can you hear me?"

They waited in silence for a reply and their hope nearly gave, before there was a distant muffled reply. "Yeah, we're fine! Kinda stuck though. We're in some sorta cave! Marik thinks we should keep goin' further in to see if it has another entrance on the other side of this cliff. Otherwise we gotta dig through lots of snow. Are you guys fine?" Joey shouted back, voice hoarse from the torture his lungs and throat had undergone.

"We'll be fine. Go on without us!" Kaiba returned easily.

"Okay!"

Atem turned to his snow covered friend and raised an eyebrow, using both hands to shake his hair free of the whiteness. "And how do you propose we escape from this, Kaiba?"

Kaiba drew a hand from his deck. "The usual way, of course." Atem nearly sighed, but managed to hold his tongue from the irritated gesture. He had meant which cards, but likely Kaiba knew that and was just trying to provoke him. Sweeping his hands down his shoulders and over the rest of his body, Atem dislodged what snow he could and looked up to see Kaiba debating over two monsters. Then he settled on a dragon type, which was predictable. "I summon Koumori Dragon," Kaiba announced.

It was a good choice for their situation, Atem decided. It could breath fire, but its snout was short and its lungs small, so they wouldn't be baking in the sudden heat when it burned a way out. What also made it suitable was its small size, perhaps as tall as Kaiba and half the width of their little hollow with its wings folded. Atem and Kaiba backed up to one side of the space and pressed their backs into the wall as Koumori Dragon thumped onto the ground in front of them. "Burn through the snow so that we can get out," Kaiba commanded.

Inflating its lungs briefly, Koumori stuck its lavender nose into the snow and breathed out. They could see nothing beyond the sudden water that rushed downward, and then the dragon ran out of air and leaned back for another breath. Both duelists rejoiced silently from the sight of the large hole leading all the way out, smiling to each other.

Pale, glorious sunlight shone down from the opening.


	25. Chapter 25

Chapter 25

A small clock ticked quietly above the stove, making a noise louder than the television in the next room with the news channel on. Solomon watched the sun go down outside and worried over the group that had gone down to Kaiba's lab to enter a virtual world. He wasn't very fond of computers, and knew very little about the latest technology and new video games. It was why he ran such an old-fashioned game shop, which contained only various board games, card games, and tabletop RPGs. They still amused him, no matter how much work it took to set them up, or how many pages you had to read to understand the rules. And the puzzles. Oh, how he loved puzzles. Solomon had boxes and boxes of them, modern ones and foreign ones, all interesting and fantastic. He glanced around his cozy kitchen, at the doorways that led to the dining and living room, and where beyond lay his storefront. The Game Shop made him happy, and it was the best home that he had ever lived in.

But it was horribly silent as of late.

Yuugi's mother was overseas visiting his father, and neither were aware of his condition at the moment. To be truthful Solomon had no idea what he'd tell them if they asked how he was doing. Lie, probably. Yuugi was his only grandson, and they tended to get along far better than Yuugi did with his parents. Which was to say that Yuugi would tell him more of what was going on, and tell nothing to his parents. Well to be fair the child's father was never around, and the last time either Solomon or Yuugi had seen him was many years ago. His mother was home almost all the time, but she was somewhat oblivious to all of his...adventures. She knew nothing of the spirit of the Millennium Puzzle, nor of any of the magic he had encountered. He had gone on all those trips for tournaments, and went missing when something terrible happened, but he and his grandson only winked at each other and told her that he'd been on vacation.

There had been the vacation in the United States, and the vacation in India, and then the vacation in Egypt. Yuugi had certainly been going on a lot of vacations, his mother had tittered.

"To help others. There were dark forces at work. They were all important trips," Yuugi had grumbled to Solomon later.

"Sounds like something out of a corny action movie, Yuugi," Solomon had chuckled, "and you can't tell me that you didn't at least have some fun while you were at these places,"

"...Erm...that's not quite the word I'd use..."

Solomon had assumed that once the Pharaoh had returned to the Afterlife, things would settle down greatly. After all, there were no longer any Items to tempt peoples' hearts with, and with the Pharaoh gone, there was no great sorcerer that drew magic to him like a magnet wherever he went. Not to mention all of the other sorcerers that he had defeated in order to earn the right to an eternal sleep. He had even managed to defeat the Thief King, whom he could not beat over three thousand years ago. So surely the magic bit of Yuugi's life was over and dealt with. How terribly wrong he was.

The tall dark man sitting upstairs in Yuugi's bedroom had been introduced as a friend, and he definitely remembered him from the final battle in the Chamber, but he knew very little about him and it bothered him that he was connected to the past of Yuugi's that involved magic. Still here he was downstairs making the man something to eat. Hopefully he did not mind Japanese food. Solomon had nearly begged Yuugi to eat something, and had offered a wide array of strongly unhealthy food in order to appeal to him. Nothing had worked, and his grandson's complexion became more and more like a ghost's with each passing minute.

There was also the matter of what they'd returned from Egypt with.

Absolute shock had been his first reaction to the Pharaoh standing there in his doorway, with one arm around his grandson. Uncertainly introducing himself, he had stumbled over the word 'grandpa' and settled for Solomon, offering his hand to be shook. Yuugi waited with wide eyes for his reaction, and after calming his heart (goodness knows what he would do if he had a heart attack now, it would have been impeccably bad timing), Solomon pulled the two of them into his arms for a hug. The Pharaoh had stiffened momentarily, and Yuugi had just grinned.

"Call me Grandpa, Atem. You're like another grandson to me, you know. I won't have you acting like a guest in your own home. Come in."

Smiling slightly at the memory of Atem looking genuinely happy, Solomon turned down the heat on the stove and started at the sound of the phone ringing.

"Mutou residence, Solomon speaking..."

A warm female voice was on the other end. "Hi! This is Téa, I was just calling to let you guys know that we're returning from our trip in two days. Is that all right...?"

Frowning, he answered crisply, "Hello, Téa. I'm not sure if that's okay...but I assume that everything will be all worked out by the time you get back. I'd ask one of your friends to tell you what's going on, but they're all out at the moment."

"Well, it's not like I can stall my parents by telling them about the evil spirit back in Domino City. So we're returning whether or not it's a good idea. But where is everybody?" She sighed through the line, sounding worried.

Switching the phone into the other hand, Solomon stirred the food in the pot. "Downtown."

"Can you put Yuugi on? I want to know what's been happening while we've been away. And Serenity's been worried sick over her brother. Yuugi's not sleeping, is he?" She asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid he is. I would try to fill you in, Téa, but I feel you have a right to hear it first hand from the people you care about. They'll all explain things to you when you get back. Don't worry, last I saw everybody, which was only a few hours ago, they were all fine. Tired, and a bit cranky, maybe, but fine. So enjoy your time away, go to the beach, and rent some good movies. There's nothing you can do for us here. But I'll let them know you called and that you were thinking of them. I'm sure that it'll make everyone feel better to have heard from you and Serenity." Solomon told her gently, knowing how stressed the two women probably were. It made him sad to know that he couldn't hand the phone over to Joey or Tristan (or Yuugi), but it was probably for the best. Anything they said to her might only increase the stress she had, and there was nothing that she could do to relieve it, seeing as how she was almost a day's drive away.

There was some hesitation, and then Téa forced a cheery attitude. "Yeah, okay. Thanks, Mr. Mutou. I'll phone again later. Maybe things will be better by then. Bye." The dial tone sounded through the line, and then he dropped the phone back into its cradle. Clearly Téa was not thinking optimistically, if she was wishing that things would be better, which suggested that she had guessed how bad it really was in Domino at the moment.

As he doled out a plate for Odion, Solomon mourned the days when all he had to worry about was whether his grandson was being bullied or not.

Now he had to worry about someone trying to kill him.

xXx

The cold slowly dropped away as they worked their way through the rough passages, deeper and deeper into the darkness. It felt like they were gradually climbing up a slope, which was heartening, considering how sick they were of listening to the sound of scampering and screeching. Bats and burrowing animals prowled about in the darkness beyond the Flame Swordsman's light, enough of them that Joey had stopped flinching whenever he heard a noise. Marik had lived most of his life underground, and he was comfortable in the darkness, but Joey had only been in one cave previous to this, and it had not been a pleasant experience. Marik had at first been absolutely silent, but with Joey's pushing they started to bicker back and forth over trivial matters.

"Ya know, for all we know, we could have already been in this virtual world for days. I mean, we were in that blizzard and couldn't see much of the sun, an' now we're in this cave. I dun' have a watch on me. Do you have a watch?" Joey babbled, huffing as he tripped on another crack in the rocky floor.

"No, Joey, I don't. Somehow I doubt that it's been days. That's just your exhaustion talking. We've been doing a lot of running. Now don't speak so loud, will you? For all we know these caverns can collapse upon us at any moment. I for one do not want to be stuck underground." Marik pushed his sweaty bangs away from his face. Sharp, thick stalactites and stalagmites littered the tunnel they were walking through. One glance away from where he was walking would make him hit something.

Joey matched his stride to Marik's so that they could walk side by side. "Well, sorry. Just trying to make some conversation. I mean, I barely know you. Except for that whole Battle City thing. Not that I'm holding a grudge or anything. The past is the past, right?"

Thinking darkly of the tattoo on his back, Marik gave him a suspicious look. For what he had done to Joey, nearly killing him and his friend, and for taking over his mind, he thought it was simply not possible for Joey not to hold some resentment towards him. Not to mention the things his other half had done. It was too much to let go. But the person looking back at him had only kindness and teasing in on his face, like the whole near-death experience had just been a bad joke. Marik swallowed self-consciously. "Right...the past."

Jabbing his shoulder playfully, Joey said mockingly, "It's not like any of your plans ever worked on me anyway. I'm immune to the whole mind slave thing. Sort of. And I've got lots of friends to back me up should I get myself into a pinch."

"Kidnapped." Marik corrected uncertainly.

"Yeah, that thing. I could've beaten Odion up if I hadn't been tied to a chair though. Seriously. I used to be in gang, did you know that? I'm pretty strong." Joey joked.

"Gang," Marik repeated, and could only think of the gangs in those New York based Mafia movies, the ones that said all the intimidating lines while smoking cigars and drinking hard liquor. The only other gang that occurred to him was his own, but it had been based less on gaining money and more on gaining rare Duel Monsters cards. To the police it had been laughable, regardless of how much trouble they had caused. The boat that they'd stolen. And the crane, for that one duel. And the motorcycle. But that last one was more for his own interest than anything else.

Joey linked his fingers and rested his hands on top of his head. "Yeah. We wielded these tricked out yo-yos. And occasionally other things. But mostly we fought with our fists." He pulled back a sleeve and showed Marik the muscles in his arm with a cheeky grin.

Scoffing, Marik couldn't help the smile that was slowly twitching onto his face. Joey's good mood was contagious. "You may have some muscles, but nothing compared to me. I had to be intimidating. You may have been in a gang, but I led one, so I've got way more muscles than you." Joey aimed a slow punch, and Marik blocked it without thinking.

Pulling away, Joey gave him a sour look. "Hmm, maybe..."

Continuing on, Marik declared, "And against Odion, no offence, Joey, but it's unlikely that you'd get any further than the first hit. He's twice your height. At least." Marik returned, causing Joey to blow out through his mouth in exasperation. Marik taunted, "And yo-yos, seriously? That sounds a little ridiculous."

Joey's grin grew wider. "Says you. They had sharp metal edges on 'em. Ever been on the other end of having a yo-yo with a sharp edge coming through the air at your face? It sucks. Bad. Those things could tear through metal. Just ask Atem, he tried it." He bragged.

Marik's light mood vanished, and Joey could see it instantly. Backtracking on his reply, he realized where he went wrong and said, scratching his head as he spoke, "Not on good terms with him, are you,"

"No."

"You wanna talk about it?" Joey suggested.

"No."

They walked in silence for another minute before they came across something that they had not seen in the tunnel before. It was a fork in the road, one path leading in the direction that they had just come, whilst the other continued on forward. The two of them paused for an instant, and Flame Swordsman shifted in his boots, peering down both dark passages with the acute instincts of a warrior. They took the hint from the duel monster, understanding that his battle senses were on high alert, and it did not take them long to figure out why. There in the ground were a set of tracks, which definitely did not come from any animal that they were familiar with. They looked like tire tracks, two long rows on either side of the tunnel, which suggested that the thing that made them was quite wide. A duel monster. On wheels?

Uneasy now, the two of them glanced at each other and continued on more quickly up the passage that they thought led out. "Know any machine types?" Marik muttered to his companion.

"Eh...well...yeah, but I have a bad memory...Yuugi would usually think of the right monster. Bandit Keith had all these machine types," Joey offered.

"I don't know his deck," Marik sighed.

"Oh."

They tried to keep their movements quiet and kept one eye down on the ground, each trying to figure out which way the tracks were heading. If the monster was going deeper into the caverns, then it would be behind them. But if not, then they might run into the creature as they worked their way out. Either way, not knowing what they were up against was making them apprehensive as they ascended out of the tunnel.

It didn't help their nerves when a rumbling sounded from behind them. Having learnt from their past problems, they took off running instantly without pausing to consider what it might be. They tripped constantly, and were overjoyed when they spotted a light in front of them, which seemed to be the exit. The tunnel widened as they ascended, panting and speechless.

Slowing as they reached the entrance, due to the blinding effect that seeing the sun was having on their eyes, they stumbled their way out of the cavern and followed the sound of Flame Swordsman's boots scuffing against the rock and his fuzzy image leading them down a rocky trail. Eventually their vision cleared, and then the ground vibrated hard beneath them, and a harsh roar of a heavy engine rolled up behind them. Marik and Joey spun on their feet, and Flame Swordsman leapt between them and the machine. It was a great brilliant blue tank, sporting a thin coat of dust and grime over its paint. Spinning red drills were on the front, looking absolutely dangerous under its glowing yellow headlights. Flame Swordsman was a strong card, sure, but Marik did not know the monster before it and so was not certain if the warrior would win.

Joey was grumbling, "Labyrinth Tank. What was its attack points again?"

Labyrinth Tank seemed to have difficulty turning the ninety degrees it took to face them on the trail. It backed up, treads kicking up rocks and dust before it managed to execute the turn and roll towards them, picking up speed. "Uh, um..."

"It's fine, Joey, let the Tank attack. If it impales your warrior I'll just summon The Masked Beast. It should have more than enough attack points to destroy that machine." Marik soothed, drawing a hand.

They stared down the Tank rolling down the slope. The grinding of the drills was incredibly jarring on their ears after hearing nothing but tiny feet scampering and bats in the cave. Flame Swordsman levelled the Salamandra sword at the Tank, spreading his legs and dropping his shoulders to prepare for the incoming strike. Engine chugging away, the Tank tried to ram the warrior, but Flame Swordsman dug his Salamandra skilfully in-between the drills, denting the metal with a screech and stopping the large machine momentarily. Then, the Swordsman began to get shoved back as the Tank pushed against the sword, his boots breaking up the earth as he leaned forward to keep him from losing valuable inches and hitting his master. The engine roared louder, and the Labyrinth Tank foolishly tried to move the Swordsman out of the way, but it only ended up forcing the Salamandra deep through the weakened metal into the core of the machine. It had assumed that its hard metal exterior was impenetrable, and now it suffered its mistake by consequence of death. Flame Swordsman withdrew the Salamandra with a satisfying clanging.

Labyrinth Tank ground to a halt, and Joey's Swordsman pushed them gently but firmly back with one hand as the machine exploded into its own unique digits and codes. Defeated. Finally.

At this point the two of them got a good look around at their new location. They were standing on a trail crisscrossing the steep wall of a large canyon, with a very long drop to the bottom, where a river was situated. Marik and Joey stepped up to the edge, and Joey kicked a pebble down after some consideration. They lost sight of the pebble within a second, which didn't bother them as much as it should have. "That is a really long way down," Joey commented with a whistle.

"At least we're in the canyon now. After that is the castle, right?" Marik questioned.

"Right."

Returning the Swordsman to his deck once more, Joey and Marik started following the trail away from the caverns, not sure where it led but hoping it allowed them to cross the canyon to the other side. Preferably with a sturdy bridge. A stone one. That wouldn't fall apart as they crossed it. But knowing how destroyed and mutated the world of Noah's had become, they both doubted that they'd find an easy way of crossing the canyon. At the worst, they might have to use Joey's Thousand Dragon to cross.

That was a last resort though, because they were only too aware of the cloud of death above them, the army of duel monsters, ready to pounce should they spot any intruders into their world. The two of them hoped to keep a low profile by not using any large duel monsters, and not engaging in flashy fights with any enemies that they might come across. It was a slim hope, but it was there nevertheless.

There was another thing that bothered them now as they hiked up the trail to the top of the canyon, and it was the wind. It was more like a powerful gale than a breeze, and it whipped at them hard enough that walking against it was tiring. And walking with it was...well...dangerous, at best. Marik and Joey covered their noses from the dust with one arm and put the other over their heads to shield their eyes. As it was they were still constantly blinking away grit that got under their lashes. Marik pointed out a problematic feature in the distance. "How far away do you think it is?" He called to Joey, though the man was only a foot away from him.

Joey blinked at the image of the swirling dust storm that seemed to be hovering over their side of the canyon, and shrugged at Marik. "I think it's too far in front of us to be a problem," he said loudly back. Marik did not seem too convinced.

They walked for a while before they were interrupted by a dozen flying monsters that suddenly dipped out of the clouds and went down to inspect the canyon, or so it seemed. Neither spotted the group until it was nearly too late, as their eyes were so focussed on the ground before them, and their ears were being misled of the danger by the howling of the wind. As the group flapped downward, Joey accidentally knocked a few rocks down the incline and caught the attention of the monsters, and they growled and snarled as they flew towards the sound. Now alerted by the noise that the creatures made, both made a bolt for some cover under the crags of stone overhang. It wasn't much, but it might be enough that the monsters might pass them over if they were just doing a fly-by.

Diving for the overhang, they were sorely bothered to find that the monsters were _not_ in fact just flying by, and as they landed on claws and legs and other various appendages, it was with some bad luck that the two of them were not nearly close enough to the cover to avoid being seen. Cards were drawn without thought.

"Panther Warrior! Scapegoat!" Joey cried out, coughing on dust and call mostly lost on the wind.

"The Masked Beast!" Marik slammed the already prepared card down onto a monster space.

Panther Warrior took his four sacrifices all at once, and was suddenly a bundle of fur and blinding strikes, dancing among the untrained monsters with all the speed of the great cat it took the likeness of. It dodged one monster's claws, leaping under the arm to sweep one of its khopesh straight through the creature's gut. Spinning on its feet, Panther Warrior parried a blow from another monster and lobbed the head off. Two down.

The Masked Beast was much slower but all the more powerful than its companion, and it ambled into existence in front of Marik, wooden staff raised to project a dark light onto its enemies. Creatures fell before it with screeches and wails. "Quickly! Don't let them make too much fuss," Marik urged.

Monsters fell to the ground like they were nothing, or merely ants beneath the Beast's large, bent feet. Joey's Panther struck out two other attackers and got Joey backed into a corner as the duelist stumbled on his feet, hand going for his deck as he looked for another sacrifice. "Joey!" Marik yelled hoarsely, watching with horror as the blond backed up another step, nearing the edge of the cliff. "Continue attacking!" He left that standing command with his Beast and dodged through the bodies on the ground that were digitizing as he spoke, mouth spitting out dust onto the earth.

The Panther was joined by the Swordsman of Landstar, which dropped immediately into the dirt as Joey's beast-warrior took it as a sacrifice and sliced the next offending monster from navel to neck. Joey stumbled another step backwards...

...dropping without a scream over the edge.

Marik dived for him, rocky ground scraping him harshly underneath his clothing. His hands reached out and grasped the pale wrist he could still see, and then he jerked forward, elbows going bloody as he dug them into the ground near his face. Joey gave a startled yelp, and the two hung like that for a brief instant, staring into the stunned faces of each other. Then, slowly working himself to his knees, he dragged the other man to safety. The sounds of battle had disappeared behind them as the last of the enemy force were killed. Heart thumping wildly and breath raspy in his throat, Joey looked at Marik and said aptly, "I can't believe you just managed to do that,"

"I can't either," Marik replied honestly.

Joey searched for some words for a moment, before simply saying, "Thanks. I guess I owe you one."

"You don't owe me anything," Marik told him shortly, "I'm just returning the favour from when you saved my life in the swamp."

The other man was looking at his bloody sleeves with somewhat of a subdued expression. "You and I both know that if Kaiba hadn't reminded me to use my cards I wouldn't have been the one who ended up saving you. If they hadn't showed up we would've probably been burned by that fire." Joey argued.

"You don't have any faith in yourself, do you?" Marik said in disbelief, pulling back his sleeves to get a good look at his elbows. Joey winced at the sight and Marik just bit his tongue to keep from crying out. "You're here for a reason, you know. The Pharaoh thinks you're a powerful ally."

"Yeah," Joey muttered, "but the Pharaoh likely heard an edited version of the first entry into the virtual world. Where Yuugi dove in first and I tagged along." He got to his feet and took his Panther off of the field, and Marik did the same with his Beast, following behind him. They had to move quickly if they wanted to avoid the attention from the flying monsters, who would notice the absence of their companions sooner or later. So they continued hiking up the trail, dirt in their faces and wind in their ears. Marik looked at Joey thoughtfully.

"Is that why you came along? Because you're convinced Yuugi's condition is your fault?" He asked in confusion. He was totally unprepared for the reaction his query brought.

Joey exploded, turning around to yell in his face. "You weren't there when Kaiba told me to just _stop for one second_ and think of a plan before I went after my sister! You weren't there when I told Yuugi I was going in whether or not he was coming with me. You weren't there when I landed right in Noah's castle out of _pure luck_ and Yuugi got stuck in the forest _ages_ away. You weren't there, okay? So don't try and claim it wasn't my fault! I was so concerned about Serenity that I was willing to risk one of my best friends to save her. I traded her life for his. End of story." He tried to spin back around, but Marik stopped him abruptly with one hand on his shoulder.

"You think you're the only one who's in here out of guilt, Joey?"

That stopped him cold, and for a moment he just looked slightly embarrassed. "Nah..."

"I'm going to take back the Rod from my other personality. Somehow. While you and the others are fighting, I'll grab hold of it. I'll suck his spirit right out through his borrowed body, into the virtual world, and down into the virtual Rod. He'll be trapped in it where he can be easily defeated. I'll do it. Somehow I'll manage to." Marik vowed, his face a complete mask.

They stood for a moment in silence, listening to the screaming of the dust storm whirling upwards into infinity high above them.

"I hope you do, Marik. I really hope so."


	26. Chapter 26

Chapter 26

Operator: "110. What is your emergency?"

Caller: "Someone just broke into our home! He attacked my husband when he got in his way and stole something of ours before taking off down the street."

Operator: "Can I please have your address so I can dispatch police officers to your location, ma'am?"

Caller: "Yeah, it's..."

Operator: "All right, ma'am, police are on the way. Can you please describe the person who broke into your household so that I can tell this to the officers?"

Caller: "God, he was...wild. White hair. Skinny. He had a blue jacket with white stripes. Maybe in his twenties? I don't know, it all happened so fast, we barely figured out what was going on before he left..."

Operator: "I understand. Is your husband all right? Do you need an ambulance?"

Caller: "Well, he's...I mean, he's beaten up, but he'll be fine. We're more angry than anything! Please tell them to come quickly so that they can catch that man."

xXx

The following excerpt of a conversation is with the manager of the university's antiquities. All of the university's historical artefacts kept for the students to study are stored in a cold storage room in the history building behind locked doors, security cameras at regular intervals, and motion sensors attached to every door. After reviewing tapes with no abnormal activity detectives questioned anyone who might have had access to the building.

Manager: "No, listen. I've told you this already. It doesn't matter how many people ask me, the answer is still going to be the same. The doors were never opened last night. The detectors would have gone off if they did. And it's just not possible that someone could have opened the doors by disabling them beforehand."

Detective: "And all the windows are locked each night?"

Manager: "Yes, yes, already. Every night."

Detective: "Yet the brazier was still found missing this morning."

Manager: "Right."

Detective: "Exactly this morning? Right when you came in? There was no one else around who might have snuck past you and obtained it when you unlocked the door?"

Manager: "For the last time, no,"

xXx

Adjusting his tie, the man went through his stack of documents, letters, and forms, depositing them into separately coloured folders in his desk drawer for later review. There was a gentle knock on the oak door, and he looked up to see a young man standing in his doorway. "Is there something I can help you with? It's rather early in the morning, so I assume you're enquiring about the auction items in the auction occurring this afternoon?" He sat down deeply into his chair, causing it to roll backwards slightly, so he pulled himself forward again and moved aside his stack of paper for the moment, gesturing for the man to take a seat in the only other chair in the room.

"Oh, no, I'll only be here a moment," the man's voice was a smooth baritone, liquid in his pronunciation and possessing some foreign quality he couldn't quite place, "yes, I did want to enquire about the auction. I understand that you have some New Kingdom Egyptian artefacts. I wouldn't happen to be able to get a hold of a list of these items up for auction, would I?" The eyes were an interesting colour of brown, the man thought. They might have been almond were it not for the spark of mauve in them. Contacts, probably.

Tapping a key on his keyboard, the man removed his computer from sleep mode and said, "Of course. Just give me a moment and you'll have a print out of the ones in the sale this afternoon."

The quiet man in his office considered this statement and suggested lazily, "Why don't you make that list include everything of Egyptian origin in the auction house." Blinking, the man nodded in affirmative and found the file he was looking for, before hitting print. The printer shoved the pages out onto the tray and the man took them, glancing them over with a satisfied expression.

"Is there anything else that I can help you with?"

There was a pause in the conversation while the man folded the papers neatly and slipped them into his pocket. "Yes, actually, there is one more thing..." he reached under the collar of his shirt and withdrew a golden necklace, and then took one step closer to the man. "I'm afraid that this can't be helped..."

He stood up from his office chair, curious, and intent on getting a better look, but suddenly knew nothing as his eyes drooped shut and his figure slumped backward into his chair. Deep in the man's mind, memories were subtly and delicately erased, and then the man with the golden necklace slipped back out of the room, quietly closing the door shut behind him.

xXx

A dark haired woman sat tall behind a desk on the screen, eyes narrowed as she considered her audience. "Authorities are perplexed by the string of robberies scattered across Honshu. The perpetrator, or perpetrators, as the case may be—"

Here he scowled. "What are they thinking? Of course I'm working alone. Didn't they get the hint from that couple's house? Fools."

"—it seems that every time, the doors are locked, the video cameras spot nothing, and all other manner of security is completely thwarted. Somehow the thieves manage to get in and out without ever tripping an alarm, much less leaving fingerprints. Already a university, a family's home, and an auction house have been hit. No one is sure where they'll strike next—"

A mocking laugh. "_I _wasn't even sure where I'd strike next."

"That's not very reassuring, Spirit."

"—but at least one description has been given, so please be on the lookout for a young adult male featured in this artist's representation." The picture was a rough sketch, and was somewhat accurate, had it not been for the wild features present on the image's face.

The spirit of the Ring leaned back into and partially through the hotel chair to grin at his disturbed host, who turned the television off without another word and dropped his head into his hands. "This is officially a disaster," Bakura moaned sadly, "you're using my body for criminal activities. I can't believe you." He ran his fingers through his hair, and looked at the astral thief, who was fading different parts of his body for the horrifying effect of looking like a ghost with no limbs. Then he did have limbs, but no mouth, and then he was faceless. The thief looked at the sickly stare his host was giving him and reluctantly brought his ventures to a halt. It would not due to have the host body sick. "No, wait," Bakura decided, "yes, I can. This is just like you. You're incredibly predictable. I should've known that such habits couldn't be broken."

Thief King Bakura draped his feet over the arm of the chair and dropped his head on the other arm, red cloak billowing out across the floor. He looked at Bakura with a tilted head, yawning absently. Bakura did not like the act, spirits did not need to breath, let alone yawn. "I already told you, dear host. This is an important treasure hunt. These are no mere trinkets that I am obtaining. I am going after specific items." When no more information was offered, Bakura flopped down onto the bed and sighed.

"Fine. I'll bite. What's the next item on the list?"

Bakura decided that the thief's grin contained far too much teeth for his liking. "I need to return to Egypt. If the Ishtar family really has found the entrance to Priest Seth's tomb, like it has said on the news, then there will be something contained within that I desire."

"...You're going to rob a tomb."

"I am a liar and a thief, landlord," he raised his hands into the air to make his point, and Bakura gazed at the gold bangles dangling from his wrists, "it's who I am."

Bakura turned over on the bed, aching all over. He thought his muscles had gotten stronger, or perhaps the pain was just so pervasive throughout his body that its edge had dulled and he'd learned to ignore it. Three robberies in one right really were too much for him, and now it was late morning and he hadn't even gotten any sleep. Adding that onto the lack of sleep he'd gotten the night before, and Bakura was incredibly irritated. The thief must have taken pity, though, because he did not seem to have done a lot of walking or the aching might have been worse. It made him wonder how they had gotten around Honshu, but on second thought he realized he didn't want to know.

"I still can't believe we're from the same soul." Bakura groused.

He could imagine the thief scowling behind him. "You and me both."

xXx

Amazingly, although the virtual world had been altered by Dark Marik to not have mornings or evenings (allowing the world to exist in a perpetual afternoon), it did have breaks in the weather. The wind had died down an hour ago, and both Marik and Joey were having a much easier time walking across the dirty plains. It possibly due to Dark Marik no longer thinking that they were near the area, but they were uncertain. They had finally reached the top of the canyon, and now struck out in the direction that the dust tornado used to be, which unquestionably disturbed them. Any minute now they expected the winds to start up again, shrieking angrily in their ears. Tired and moody, the two fighters walked along in some silence, though it was much more relaxed than before. They seemed to have reached something of an understanding between them, though both still knew next to nothing about the other. Joey made snide comments as they went along about how the world had looked better in Noah's control, and what bad taste Dark Marik had.

Their companions were still nowhere to be found, which bothered Joey more than it bothered Marik. He looked about in all directions with some hope of seeing the others, but his hope was dashed. "They can handle themselves, Joey. We'll run into them sooner or later." Marik told him.

"Oh, they can handle themselves just fine against duel monsters and the like, but what about against each other?" Joey threw back at him.

Marik frowned. "Pardon?"

"Don't ya know those guys are fierce rivals? They'll be bickering the whole way to the castle. Duel-this-and-your-strategy-that. I will defeat you one day, Atem," Joey exaggerated Kaiba's voice while pulling a face.

The tomb keeper cracked up without meaning to. "I know the ancient scriptures which spoke of Priest Seth and the Pharaoh being rivals, but aside from Battle City, I didn't think Kaiba and the Pharaoh really competed against each other." He commented.

"Kaiba loves a good challenge," Joey admitted, "Yuugi and Atem were always the ones he could never beat. The one fight he couldn't win. So of course he still feels competitive against 'em," Marik stared contemplatively into thin air. Curiously, Joey pointed out, "You and Kaiba don't seem to get along either."

Letting out a short laugh that was in no way humoured, Marik shrugged. "It's not that I dislike him. It's just that we're both good at arguing our points. His comments always make me want to rebuke him, and I think my comments make him feel the same way. We're both too used to conversations with people who will back down when we state our opinions. So I suppose I don't know exactly how to deal with him. That's all."

"I know what you mean. He and me come from totally different backgrounds. So we always end up arguing 'bout something or other." Joey agreed.

Dryly, he replied, "So I've noticed."

Joey ignored the obvious jab. "At least we talk to each other. You don't like Atem, so you completely ignore him. Doesn't seem like it's working out too well. I kept seeing Atem shoot you these tentative looks like he was worried about what you thought of him."

His mouth stayed shut for nearly a full minute before Marik worked up a reply. "I've kind of got mixed feelings towards him."

"Yeah?" Joey encouraged.

Shooting him an irritated look, Marik continued, "Part of me pities him. An eternal peace interrupted because we've got some problem and Yuugi's...injured."

"Thought you wanted to bring him back."

"I did! He will be the one to destroy my mistake for the final time. But he was supposed to come back as a spirit again! To revitalize Yuugi's body, hold off the infection, and use him to attack my other personality. This wasn't supposed to happen like this, it's going all wrong! The Pharaoh's whole...I mean...that means...how can we send him back again? If we can't...it's my duty to allow him to reach the Afterlife, right? But now he's alive again..." Marik trailed off, angry and frustrated. His hands dropped to his belt naturally, and he silently snapped at himself to stop doing that, as he no longer had the Rod or his Darkness to take out his anger and hate on. So he had to endure. Without Odion to calm him down, Marik seethed silently and mentally attacked himself, cursing his beliefs and his naïve optimism at the time that he'd suggested that they bring back the Pharaoh. Even Yuugi hadn't wanted to.

But Yuugi was a martyr and would've died to keep the Pharaoh happy. And Marik was no such thing. He wanted his darkness destroyed, wanted relief from the two emotions that he wished he could never feel again, and he saw his other half's defeat as the solution to this. Anything to release the years of heartache and misery of his own loneliness that could only exist from having the burdens he'd had, the responsibilities and the strict clan of tomb keepers to enforce them. There was not a day when his chest did not feel constricted, not one hour when he did not yearn to ride down an empty highway in his motorcycle, speed limit abandoned and duties behind him. He relished the independence that he had now that the clan's previous obligations had been cleared, but somehow it was never enough. I'm greedy and childish, Marik thought, and I admit it.

"We'll think of something when the time comes. But, I mean, it's not like we can stab him and let that be the end of it. Or re-mummify his body or whatever. No way," Joey shook his head furiously, "if he can't walk back through the Door, then that's that. Destiny, right? Ishizu will say something like that, an' then he'll just stay."

Marik looked absolutely horrified. "_Stay_?"

"Why not?" Joey asked, and appeared to get considerably excited, "it'd be awesome, I mean, Atem never got to live out his previous life, so this would be like a second chance. We'd show him all the cool stuff he never got around to doing in the our millennium. But we'd need a list. Something like, 'a thousand things to do before you die again,'" Joey didn't like the distraught face Marik had on, and he wrinkled his brows in confusion.

"Have you ever considered that this is a man who was born _over three thousand years ago_, and therefore does not belong in this time?" Marik nearly choked on his sentence.

"Yeah, but...come on. He's our friend. It wouldn't be that hard to teach him how to live in our time. He already knows about most of it from living in Yuugi's body for two years. Right?"

Marik declined to answer.

Joey started, "Listen, I know that you feel bad now, but..."

Cutting him off, Marik said coolly, "The decisions have already been made. We can't undo what we've done, and now must go on with our plans. I will put aside all my feelings for the situation and help the Pharaoh to defeat my other personality. I swear it."

The statement was marred by the uncomfortable and defeated look that passed across Marik's face, but Joey didn't mention it. Canyon dust was still managing to get in his face regardless of the wind, and so he busied his hands with removing the stuff from around his nose and eyes. The trek was getting endless.

They were still lacking a bridge to cross.

xXx

"That would've hardly been the greatest strategy in that moment. Relying on last moment draws are what you and Yuugi do, not what the rest of the dueling world does, Atem."

"I was merely speaking from my own personal experience. I admit though that I do have a rare connection with my deck that most duelists do not."

"Yes, because the majority of them don't believe in that heart of the cards nonsense. Real strategies involve something called skill, not blind faith."

"I was unaware that my faith was considered blind."

Kaiba disregarded his statement and moved around another large boulder. Once they'd managed to get away from the ice fields, half-frozen and nearly gnawing their gums clean through from their teeth chattering so much, they'd had to make their way over the plains of hard dirt and rock. It was ridden with dust storms, and the winds were extensive and seemingly never-ending, save for this small amount of time where they had died down enough to have a conversation. A great canyon was coming up before them, and both were disturbed that they couldn't see some form of bridge to cross. Of course that would be too easy, though. Dark Marik had likely removed them all.

Atem had been thinking about their other two companions since they had been forced to split up. He had not brought it up, however, knowing the answer that Kaiba would give. The others would be just fine, and he needed to focus on the task at hand. Looking ahead at Kaiba made him feel a little sorry that he could do little to assuage the man's concerns. Still, he risked reassuring the man when he knew it was likely that he would just scoff at him. "When we reach the castle, Noah will be our first priority. If we get him away from Dark Marik first, then we will not have to worry about him being used against us," Atem suggested.

A snort. "You know as well as I do that Dark Marik has already taken over his mind. There will be nothing to rescue until that creature is gone. So don't bother with pretty words to try and make the situation seem better, Atem. This is as good as it's going to get." He did not even bother turning around to speak to his face, choosing instead to continue striding quickly towards the canyon, using his long legs to his advantage to stay ahead of Atem.

Knowing the truth in his voice, Atem sighed and changed tactics to something more honest. "I was merely trying to assure you that I have not forgotten about him in my desire to defeat Dark Marik. We will save Noah. I can promise you that." He stated.

Now he did turn, looking at Atem with some derision. "You always do that," at Atem's look of confusion, Kaiba went on, "you always try to take on every impossible and dangerous responsibility set before you. No matter what it is. No matter what's at stake and what you're risking. That's just like you to say something like that, trying to act like a hero because you've already got the image pinned to your shoulders. Or because you enjoy it." Atem attempted to interrupt, but Kaiba raised his voice to prevent it. He continued, "Let me tell you something. Leave Noah to me. Let me be the distraction that will keep him off you while you deal with Dark Marik. I will take care of him myself, without your help. Or the help of the others. So why don't you just focus on that side show circus freak and let me deal with my own problems. Are we clear?"

Calmly, Atem replied, "Kaiba, you are endeavouring to do this on your own, and I respect your conviction, but let me remind you that asking for help is not the weakness that you so often make it out to be. The others and I are perfectly willing and able to aid you."

"I don't believe that you understand me. I don't _need _your help. Just defeat Dark Marik. That is all that you must do." Kaiba sneered.

"If you insist," Atem nodded slowly, silently wondering if things would go so well that Kaiba would not actually need help to hold off Dark Marik's mind slave. Then a brief hint of a smile tilted up the corners of his lips, and he reminisced for a second. "You remind me of my cousin. He became just as irritated whenever I would offer my assistance. As if I was doing him some terrible insult,"

Surprised and quite annoyed, Kaiba retorted, "I am not him." Atem started at his tone and frowned, wondering if he had upset him. "You're just missing the man and comparing him to me in response. Well don't think that I make some suitable substitute. I'll never measure up to him because I am not him, Atem. Whatever justification you have for treating me like your cousin is absolutely inadequate. I won't hear any more of it. So don't do it again." He turned around and started walking again, and Atem was significantly bothered by his comments.

"Kaiba."

The businessman just sighed in answer.

"Forgive me." Receiving nothing but a shrug in response, Atem tried again. His voice dropped in tone. "I never meant to make you feel like I was treating you like him. Truly, I am sorry. It was a poor choice in words and I regret it."

There was a bit of quiet between them, before Kaiba remarked reluctantly, "I never actually minded being compared to him. It's only when you use me to make yourself feel better for his absence that I don't appreciate it."

Atem walked behind him and wiped the dust from his face for nearly the hundredth time since they'd entered the dusty plains. "Well, you are correct, you realize. I do miss him. It is probably ironic that out of my entire family, he is the one that I spent the most time with. And yet I did not even know that we were related until near the end of my life. And then I met you. Though I did not have my memories from my past, somehow we still formed a connection. As friends. And rivals."

"Cut it with the friendship speech," Kaiba nearly groaned.

"Ishizu would call it destiny," Atem said thoughtfully, "but I believe it is more likely that we were just the right personality types, able to understand each other because of our interests, the way we thought and acted..."

"Atem."

"Yes?"

"Just shut up."


	27. Chapter 27

Chapter 27

They were coughing dust and grit, old fumes from the smoke coming out in their breath. Already having faced the blazing heat and the chilling freeze, they both felt that the aching in their muscles only compounded onto their already hurt bodies. Trying to out-run the duel monsters was proving to be a failing tactic, as not only did they not seem to tire, but they also had much longer legs and a heavy appetite. Apparently. After taking a good look at the big black boiling pot over the roaring fire, Kaiba and Atem had correctly assumed that the mass of Hitotsu-Me Giants intended on cooking them. And subsequently eating them. The mental image had been so horrifyingly revolting that they had instantaneously bolted in the opposite direction, not wanting to go through the long battle that would result in facing the monsters. They had to get to the castle. They had to cross the canyon. It was imperative.

It was impossible.

"We've been running alongside the canyon for a while now," Kaiba panted, "I think it's time we use my Blue-Eyes and just cross the blasted thing, and deal with the consequences,"

Atem gave him a distracted look, and glanced behind them, bothered by how quickly the Giants were gaining on them. "Just a little longer, Kaiba. When we have no options left," Atem implored. Kaiba shot him a look but made no comment.

Trap Hole had caught a good deal of them, and Bottomless Trap Hole had been even more effective. The large holes were far behind them now, and the slots on the disk still glowed where the cards took up space. Kaiba had gone for a more deck consuming strategy, employing the weaker monsters in his deck to distract and cause chaos in the ranks of the Giants. Both the Holes and the monsters of Kaiba's had worked quite well, but it seemed like the amount of Giants was endless. They came from tunnels underground and caves in the rock around them, and they brandished clubs and sticks, growling for their blood. It was obsessive. No true duel monster spirit would act like this. Certainly they might originally come after them, but Atem and Kaiba were duelists, and the monsters knew this. They should have given up by now. They knew that they would die, one way or the other, through long battle or the occasional spell or trap. Yet still they kept coming. Like it was the only reason they existed.

"Their programming's been rewritten," Kaiba explained while sending his latest fighters to the graveyard, "Noah's creatures attacked for territorial reasons, or for the predator or prey instincts written into their code. These creatures have no fight or flight response."

"Fight or flight?" Atem didn't recognize the terms.

"I mean they don't know when to quit, even though any monster should know a duelist when it sees one," Kaiba said exasperatedly, glancing back again with Atem to find the Giants practically shoving each other to get ahead of the competition, mouths dripping drool in anticipation of a meal, "they should know not to mess with us. We've already dispatched numerous comrades of theirs."

Atem had to admit that Kaiba was right. It seemed like Dark Marik had destroyed their intelligence for maximum effect, giving him and Kaiba (and Joey and Marik, wherever they were) the worst possible trip to the castle. But did he honestly think that it was going to stop them? Certainly it slowed them down, and irritated them, but it would do nothing to keep them away from the castle. So in all actuality it was a pointless move.

The Giants had changed positions, running more beside them than behind them now, trying to force them over the canyon edge. Running an erratic path through the mass of rocky outcroppings and dirt mounds, Kaiba and Atem rounded a sheer sheet of stone jutting out through the ground and spotted salvation. It was a rickety wooden bridge strung across the canyon on ropes, and it looked decayed to the point of collapsing, but it would work for their purposes. After all, they did not plan on coming back over it. Kaiba shot him a glance in confirmation and Atem nodded firmly.

"Kojikocy! Go, keep them at bay!"

"Back him up! Revival Jam and Jam Defender!"

They allowed grins to form on their faces, as Joey and Marik repaid them from the swamp and joined them, running hard for the bridge. "Took you two long enough to show up," Kaiba mocked them easily, "were you just taking your time, or did you bump into some trouble?" Even with his egotistic attitude both Marik and Joey still found something to laugh about.

"Got it on the first try. We were really enjoying the scenery," Joey returned lightly.

"Hah! Only a masochist would enjoy this environment."

"Stop arguing for the time being, will you?" Marik puffed, and reached the bridge first. He slowed to a stop, then abruptly started across, hands holding onto the ropes on either side as he tested each wooden board before walking over it. Kaiba followed after he got nearly a quarter of the way across, not sure about the strength of the bridge. It did not seem like it would hold up with their combined weight on top of it. Joey and Atem thought the same, and they waited as the two crossed in relative safety while the Giants fought past Kojikocy and his ultimate defence.

"I thought I wouldn't see ya again till we reached the castle. I'm glad we ran into you guys," Joey wheezed, coughing out dust. It felt like his lungs would never be clear again. I wonder if this is what smoking feels like, he deliberated idly.

"I am glad to see you as well, Joey. The journey was not the same without your presence," Atem looked between the approaching danger and their friends, and was relieved to see Marik waiting impatiently on the other side. He was waving at Kaiba to be quicker, who had just lost his footing when a board had snapped and his leg had fallen through the bridge. Motioning to Joey, he moved aside slightly and watched as Joey warily stumbled across, barking back at him with poor humour.

"Ya mean it wasn't the same without my amazing dueling skills and my accurate sense of direction. I feel for you, I really do. Sorry I couldn't have been there to yell at Kaiba for you." Turning back to his feet, he moved forward across the bridge as Kaiba reached the other side. Atem started across.

Their persistent Hitotsu-Me pack were no longer being held back by the stalwart warrior of Joey's or his defence, and so these cards left the field for their owners' hands. Atem and Joey had no time to be careful, and at this point they just bolted, the bridge swinging wildly as they crossed and the Giants nearly upon them.

"Cut the ropes!" Atem yelled at the two already across, praying to his gods that they could hear him, or read lips, or something. Luckily they were both intelligent enough to figure it out, and Kaiba summoned a suitable hack-and-slash type. A human-sized lizard dropped onto the ground, green arms adorned with sharp metal axe heads. Rude Kaiser snarled and snapped its long jaws, red tongue flicking out to taste the air of fear and bloodlust. Marik and Kaiba tensed, waiting for the precise moment when they crossed to command the creature to cut the ropes.

Blood pounding and lungs shuddering, Joey reached the other side. "Atem," he shouted, hands cupped over his mouth in determination, "pick up your feet! Faster, faster!" The Pharaoh grit his teeth and forced his tightening muscles to contract enough for him to gain a few more inches ahead of the monsters.

He reached hard ground, and then Kaiba was crying out, "Rude Kaiser! Now!" The beast-warrior did not even need the command, and it roared, standing in-between both rotten wooden posts stuck into the ground. Its arms jerked forward, and then the wood splintered, dropping to the earth with a sharp crack in the air. And for the first time since encountering the monsters, the Giants slowed to a halt, suddenly realizing their terrible mistake. The bridge (if it could even be called such a thing now), no longer supported by both sides of the canyon, slid downward. The wooden posts were ripped into the nothingness of the gap with dirt flying everywhere, and the Giants screamed in terror. Coding and digits zoomed into space, and the virtual program ate it up, before depositing every monster still clinging to the flailing bridge down into the river below. Those few who managed to hold on hit the other side as the bridge slammed against the rock wall, and soon either lost their grip or were forced off as fellow monsters climbed over them on their way up.

Watching the commotion occurring on the other side of the canyon, and looking beneath them to see the monsters drop to their virtual deaths, they felt chilled in knowing that it could have been them. All four of them stood there breathing harshly and glancing at each other, reassuring each other with eye contact that they were all right. Joey was the only one who saw fit to collapse to the dirt in exhaustion. "I will never see a tabletop duel the same way again," he groaned, rubbing his ankles where the shoes had dug painfully into his heels.

Although rest was necessary, they did not spare more than a few minutes gathering their breath before they trudged off again. It would not be wise to stay in one place for too long, lest they attract the attention of more monsters. The dust gave way to yellowed grass as they left the area, and then they started to see trees again, rotted and decaying. They were tall, but bent over from wear, strain, and what looked like acid and destructive force. Grey shredded branches and leaves covered the ground. Up ahead loomed the monolith that used to belong to Noah.

It was a crumbling ruin of a mansion, walls chopped clean through and higher floors caved in through the lower floor's ceiling. The beautiful green tiles that had adorned the roof were splattered with blood and dead foliage, further destroying the image. Pieces of windows, furniture, and stone lay scattered about the outer courtyards. It was as if the home had been ripped apart and strung about the landscape to imitate a five-year-old's joke on an art project. Kaiba narrowed his eyes and surveyed the devastation like he was looking for a target to strike; they removed themselves from his view and tensed, knowing the battlefield to be not quite as empty as it seemed. The virtual pieces flickered like a television on static, and then abruptly they noticed how quiet it was.

There were no insects. No birds. No monsters. Silence reigned, save for their diaphragms contracting to suck air into their lungs. Their breath rasped in their throats and interrupted the nothing that had been happening. Kaiba stepped forward, and walked around the sad remains of a garden statue to enter the main courtyard where the castle used to be situated in its complete form.

It was shocking how little wind was blowing, how little the weather was attacking the place. The fighters tread lightly, ready to pounce on anything that moved. Kaiba led them through the mounds of rotted couch cushions and shattered pottery, and then they crossed the threshold of what used to be the main entrance to the castle.

Ashen light shone down from the entrance hall that had been removed of a ceiling, and what a hall it was. Most likely glorious in its time, judging by the marble covering the floor all the way up to the double curling staircases. Crushed and dented suits of armour rested against the stairs, lances and swords dropped in apparent defeat from a powerful enemy. The stairs themselves were chipped heavily, and the wooden structure was quite visible underneath, crawling with roaches and ant hives. So the previous lack of sounds was now filled with the ever-disturbing humming of the swarms waging war against each other and eating the remains of their enemies. The rubble of ceiling plaster crunched bitterly under their feet, and they frowned at each other, wondering what Dark Marik could possibly be thinking. Where he was hiding.

"Noah?" Marik shouted into the space, his voice echoing back at him with a strange hollow tone. The other three jolted in place, looking back at him. "Well," he said tiredly, "we want to find him, don't we? And I am certainly not going to be shouting my own name," he asserted.

The other three exchanged looks, before joining in. "NOAH!"

Echoes rebounded and sent the bugs under the tiles skittering in all directions. Kaiba crunched one cockroach under his shoe in utter revulsion. Then, getting impatient, he chose a direction and wandered through an archway, where the ceiling was on the verge of collapse. He disregarded the obvious safety concern and darted down the hall, with the others pacing after him after some mild hesitation. Plaster dust and insulation fluff layered the walls and floor, causing a few sneezes. After further irritating their abused lungs, they came to a hallway full of rooms. What advertised this fact was not doors, but rather holes punched through walls. The holes were of varying sizes, and varying shapes, and they tilted their heads as they thought through what claw, sword, or laser cannon blast could have caused each.

Searching the rooms proved to be an eerie task within itself, for not only were they seeking someone who was now on the enemy's side, but they were rummaging through his demolished mansion to find him. All throughout lay pieces of things that they recognized, and some that they didn't. Kicking in doors that were hanging off of their hinges by a single screw, Joey did a fair job in getting them to flinch. Numerous times. "Joey!" Marik hissed at him.

"Noah! Come out already! If you're a mind slave right now fight it! I did! I know what it feels like! But tough! You can do it!" Joey cried out into the latest room, going in so that he could lift a broken wardrobe off of a large chest and look inside. Nothing.

Sighing, the others looked into other rooms, keeping close in case the virtual world decided to switch locations on them suddenly. It was possible that Dark Marik was just considering the best playing field on which to fight them, and was devising the coldest or windiest or hottest landscape for his assured victory. The already anxious fighters opened closets with care and kept within eyesight of each other.

Kaiba came upon a door which had not in fact been torn down with the rest of the house, and inside the decayed bed sheets left a stain on the hardwood which was already covered in a fine coat of dust. There was a hole in the wall which led into the next room, and Kaiba slunk closer to peer through the wall, at the dirtied and worn foreign literature stacking a tilted bookcase. It was the most intact piece of furniture he'd seen yet, and it warranted a closer look. At any rate, the books were a clear indication that the mansion belonged to a Kaiba. He speculated that this must be one of the remaining imaginations of Noah's not completely torn apart by Dark Marik.

A pasty cheek dropped into view, skin flaky with dehydration, and a single eye blinked through the hole that he was looking through, dark as the ocean depths. As empty as the space in a bottomless pit.

He jerked backwards with a cry, heart thumping loud enough to drum in his ears. The door slammed shut, and all of a sudden Atem and Joey and Marik were shouting at him. "Are you all right?" Was Atem's prevalent call.

"I'm fine! I found Noah. Just go after Dark Marik, I can handle myself!"

"Kaiba you—" Joey was cut off, and the room spun on its axis, completely flipping over. Kaiba cried out again, skidding down the wall to land on the ceiling, and nearly broke through, however; it seemed to be reinforced. He ducked and rolled, avoiding the furniture pieces about to drop on his head. The upside down chandelier flickered with a dim orange light, and Kaiba got to his feet to see the enemy standing on the other side of the ceiling fixture.

Noah looked significantly detached, like he wasn't quite seeing, or not quite hearing, or feeling. If Kaiba had known any disabled, he would not have made the comparison, but the only other simile that occurred to him was the classic daydreamer, staring off into space with a dreamy expression on the face. Noah did not look like a daydreamer. In fact he looked deceased.

Skin peeling off of his body in flakes, and hair matted and almost all gone, the stark contrast of his normally pristine clothing looking so beyond repair against the dark eyes made Kaiba shudder. What was left of his turquoise locks were muddied and so made them look nearly the same colour as the tatters of his clothing. The once proud Noah was a wreck. Nothing remained that looked like the child (man, Kaiba corrected himself, he was nearly his age) he had once been. It was tragic.

"It's tragic, isn't it," said Noah's face with Noah's tongue.

Seething, Kaiba addressed the image with a clipped tone. "Get out of his virtual body. It is of no use to you. You can do very little against us in it." His hands were clenched at his sides, and he was nearly vibrating with withheld emotions. Anything to keep himself under control. It would not due to have a repeat of the Bakura duel, where he had acted recklessly. He wouldn't let such a thing happen again. This is my brother you are holding captive, Kaiba thought uncertainly. Slowly, he realized that he was just as bothered as when Mokuba had been kidnapped all those previous times. Without even knowing it, Kaiba had gotten attached to the intelligent mind trapped in the virtual world, even going so far as to shedding his previous grievances with the man. The past is the past, Kaiba thought, and I have never been one to dwell on it. Regardless of what he used to be...Noah is like Mokuba...he's family...

The blue-eyed devil before him smiled gently with a childlike quality, an innocence which was blemished by the dead image it rested upon. "So you say. But I believe that Noah is quite valuable to me. Do you know why, Kaiba? It's because you have a connection to him. Just like how making Joey and Téa into slaves nearly caused Yuugi's and Joey's deaths, so will keeping Noah be a danger to you," he brought his hands up and examined his blackened nails, the dull look on his face still indicating that he was anywhere but in that room, "the only difference, High Priest, is that there will be no near-death this time. Your existence will be completely squashed. Obliterated." Another grin.

Kaiba lunged for him, but he was too lithe and quick, and the air pulsated as he dodged sideways. Then he disappeared completely, and reappeared a second later behind him, his voice pitched to sound conniving. "I don't have time for games, Seto." Kaiba whirled around and lunged again, arms reaching out to grab onto his brother. Dark Marik flashed out of the way, using the virtual world again to teleport Noah's body away from him. Spinning once more to face Dark Marik, the two opponents eyed each other. One held a depressed expression like a bad mime impersonation, and it only looked comical. The other was straight-faced, yet he still looked more emotionally wrecked than the child. "It's time to take the revenge I never got the last time you entered my virtual world," the child sneered, "for I am the one destined to rule Kaiba Corporation, not you, Seto. I am the one who was raised to take over when Father died. It's time you paid the consequences—"

"You're not him!" Kaiba snapped, "you know nothing! Those aren't his desires any longer!"

Dark Marik continued calmly, "What do I know? Far more about him than you'd like to believe. I'm in his head now, Kaiba. I can _hear his thoughts_ and _see his dreams_," Kaiba reeled as if he'd been struck, and remembered with abstract detail his encounter with the Millennium Eye, which Pegasus had used to read every one of his moves and strategies. Which he had used to see his hand with his eyes. He felt sick to his stomach.

"If you think pulling memories from his head is going to distract me, you're about to be horribly disappointed," Kaiba breathed in fury. He drew cards from his deck, and slid a trap card onto the field. "Go, Shadow Spell!"

"It won't work, Kaiba! Not when I am the master of this domain!" Dark Marik yelled at him.

The bright metal chains unleashed from the card leaped forward in a blast of energy, intent on trapping the child in their clutches. Noah's hand came out, and with his voice he demanded the chains be destroyed. The trap zone's lights winked out, and in another instant the chains blinked out of existence.

Hand still held outwards towards him, Dark Marik made a sweeping gesture upward to further make a point on his abilities. "As long as the Rod is in my hands, there is nothing that you can do to stop me," he whispered in utter glee. Noah's body took a few steps forward, his head tilting upwards to meet Kaiba's eyes. "Not without another Item, Kaiba. You know this. And now you will pay for your insolence." Dark Marik added tauntingly in Noah's most childish voice.

His spine could not have been any straighter if there had been a metal pole stuck into it. Kaiba gripped his cards tightly. Come on, Atem, Kaiba thought, you need to find him. With you he will need to be wholly focussed on the fight, and surely his grip on Noah's mind will be loosened. I just need a little leverage...just enough to help Noah claim his body back...

"Go, La Jinn the Mystical Genie of the Lamp!"

For now all he could do was play cards, and hope they lasted just long enough for him to land a hit. Enough to knock the body unconscious so that he could be restrained.

Dark Marik was laughing.

xXx

The room was gone. After the door had slammed shut, the three of them had yelled at Kaiba, and had received only the barest of hints of what was going on before their conversation was cut short when the room vanished. In its space was a dead-end hallway, a ruined painting dripping red paint down the wall which was clearly Dark Marik's idea of a joke. Kaiba is dead, was what they assumed it meant, and they were dealing with it in a decidedly unusual fashion. Instead of dropping to the floor in grief and horror, Atem, Joey, and Marik summoned their monsters and began ripping apart the mansion.

Blasts of fire and magic and bursts of animalistic fury levelled the building to its foundations, and when there was nothing left to destroy, the three caught their breath is confused surprise. Kaiba was nowhere to be found.

"He's gonna be annoyed if we dun' help him out quickly," Joey raised a valid point.

They knew their companion to be alive, and it would likely take a reasonable amount of trouble to kill him. Dark Marik had neither the time nor the knowledge that Kaiba was difficult, at best, to handle. And trying to use Noah to kill him was going to make it even more difficult on the spirit, knowing how Kaiba felt about people messing with his family.

Atem realized that going through the virtual world was a poor way of searching for his friend, and that they wouldn't be fruitful if Dark Marik did not want Kaiba to be found. He thought he might be able to draw out Dark Marik in Dr. Yoshida's virtual body, however, which was probably the next best thing. If they defeated him at his own Shadow Game then his hold on every single one of his mind slaves would be released.

So he looked down at his Puzzle, and considered how to use it to attract the Rod.

In his time he had been a talented and skilled sorcerer, and it was with his powers and never-before-attempted technique that he had sealed both his and the Thief King's soul into two Items. In fact, although the Items could remove souls from their bodies, before him none had attempted such a sealing into the Items themselves. In that way not only was he powerful, but he was also good at adapting to complex and tough situations. The former King of Games now shifted through his knowledge, only slightly rusty as using magic.

He relearned the feel for the Shadows quickly.

Dark smoke sifted through the air around him, and Atem wrapped his mind around the magic of the Puzzle, calling it towards him. The Puzzle responded instantly to its chosen user, allowing its ancient magic to combine with the Pharaoh's. And then Atem set it loose upon the virtual world around him, with only one command for the force that he had unleashed.

_Break the control of the other Item on this world._

There was a horrible noise, like a great tearing into the void, like a stiff fabric being put through a cheese grater. The three of them clapped their hands over their ears, and watched in morbid fascination as the world tore itself apart.

Suddenly there were numbers everywhere. In the air, through objects, in themselves, and hovering around the outlines of the landscape itself. Atem felt his field of magic spread outward, and inward, deep into depths he hadn't known existed, and he cringed at the expansion. It had been a while since he had done this, and the results were not without some heartache. His whole body shuddered in rhythm with the waves piercing the programming, and he cried out as his energy and resources depleted painfully. It was like too much exercise with little to no warm-up.

He abruptly stopped it when he felt another Item user respond to his encroaching magic field, bolstering the commands of the virtual world and shutting out his presence. Atem felt he had sufficiently caught Dark Marik's attention.

The world returned to normal as he recalled his magic; the numbers faded and they all looked at each other. "What happened?" Joey grumbled.

Marik saw fit to answer him. "I've got a better question. What's that?" He waved towards the centre of the demolished mansion, where all about was the chaos that they had created.

There was a noise of numbers and electricity as Dr. Yoshida stepped out of a wobbling balloon of air. Marik stared, looking over the new body that his other personality had chosen as if reconsidering an old opponent on the battle field. Joey stared like he had been expecting a cowboy to hop out of the bubble, guns blazing, and clearly he still expected something of the like or his hand would not be hovering over his magic and trap zone. And Atem stared because he still remembered the wild hair and the violet eyes of Marik's body, and he was as unused to seeing the enemy in that image as Marik was. The face was gaunt, like it was undernourished and had not slept in a while, and it was definitely Japanese genetically, which was even more disconcerting. Dark hair lay limp over his black eyes, and his clothing reflected the long days spent in the desert, with worn boots and faded colours.

Dark Marik blinked his host's eyes and said aptly, and furiously, "_You_."

Atem and Marik did not know to whom he was referring to between the two of them, and so replied accordingly in an even tone.

"Yeah. _Us_."

xXx

Kaiba spit blood onto the floor and raised his head from his knees, bringing himself to his feet again. Dark Marik had ceased his attacks for the moment, and Kaiba's La Jinn hovered plaintively over its new master, waiting for its next command. Kaiba himself only glanced at his captive monster for a brief second, instead focussing his attention on his brother, and realized that Atem had finally gotten Dark Marik's notice. Noah's face looked even blanker than usual.

I will not allow such filth to win, Kaiba thought acidly.

He had been a user of the Rod in a past lifetime, and when he bothered to consider it, he remembered that the Rod had responded to him in a duel against Ishizu during his Battle City Tournament. It irked him that he was resorting to thoughts involving _magic_, of all things, when pondering how to save his brother. In exasperation, and out of options, Kaiba gave it a shot. What did he have to lose? It wasn't like the others were here to see him if he screwed up.

Not knowing exactly what he was doing, Kaiba narrowed down his thoughts like he was organizing his bank accounts, and calmed his mind and virtual body with steady breathing. Noah was still looking blank, but he would have to work fast. First, Kaiba thought, something easy...

Turning his attention back to his Genie, Kaiba caught its gaze and forced every thought and feeling into getting it back on his side of the playing field. The Genie actually tilted its head, either wondering what he was thinking or what he was doing, Kaiba wasn't sure. He turned his mind back to that day, when he had felt the Blue-Eyes call out to him, when he had seen a vision of his past life after he had inadvertently tapped into the powers of the Rod. He tried to remember the exact feeling, the pressure, the slick feel of smoke in his veins. The powers of the Eye had been more subtle, and so recalling those memories would be useless to him, except...the moment when his soul had been taken. Now that was a moment that he remembered so very clearly.

It was a very distinct feeling. Maybe it was similar to the feeling of having your soul trapped in a body not in your control. Possibly. There was a slim chance. Kaiba wondered if he could use this emotion to his advantage.

A thick feeling was stuck in his throat, but Kaiba didn't pay it any mind. His body had gotten heavy, but he was too busy reliving a painful memory to be aware of it. Sweat formed on his brow, and his blood grew hot, but all Kaiba saw was the hard wall of energy being blasted into his being, forcing his soul out of his body. All he heard was the roaring of his Blue-Eyes as she reared her long neck in preparation for a lightning strike, crying out in misery as she was commanded to attack her master. All he felt was the desert heat on his face and the weight of that woman in his arms, and the sudden inexplicable knowledge that he had gained when he fell back into the duel, a fresh memory behind his eyes.

Dark Marik stopped fazing out and took greater control of Noah's body. In that strange double voice that only occurred when someone was using someone else's body to speak through, he spoke coldly to Kaiba. "I'm afraid that I have other matters to attend to, Kaiba, and will need to end this debacle of a rescue attempt quickly. So speak your last words. I may see fit to pass them on to those friends of yours," Dark Marik paused, and then shook Noah's head with a sudden jovial laugh, "no, wait, I won't. I'll tell them about how you begged and pleaded for your life in unreserved despair."

The taste of blood was still lingering in his mouth, a metallic tint to the other flavour he could taste, but couldn't quite place. Bold and intricate, and viscous like molasses. And cold. If cold could indeed be a flavour.

"What, no regrets to share?" Dark Marik mocked. When Kaiba was not forthcoming, Dark Marik raised his hand, "Fine, then. La Jinn, destroy him." He demanded.

La Jinn floated motionless, eyes completely on Kaiba.

"La Jinn," said Dark Marik again, a little confused.

Kaiba's voice was laced with magic, though he was unaware of it. "Come to me, my monster." Dark Marik stared in absolute shock as the Genie shook its bonds with him and floated towards Kaiba, before stopping at his shoulder and turning, very slowly. Kaiba breathed in the icy smoke in his mind, its scent thick in the air, but only to him. He breathed out and turned to his duel disk next, at the trap slot with the trap that had failed terribly. And he demanded that the trap reawaken.

Numbers zoomed overhead.

"No...this isn't possible..." Dark Marik said in alarm, a tremor in his double voice.

High Priest reincarnated gazed down his enemy and said, "Oh, but it is. You've underestimated me deeply,"

"You're nothing!" Dark Marik screamed, "you're an ant beneath my feet! You'll be swept aside with all the others, sent to wander the Shadows for eternity!"

Shadow Spell launched forward, and then Noah's body was wrapped in chains, completely restraining him, stopping him from even speaking. No longer would the child be in his control, not unless Dark Marik came in his other body to remove the trap from his mind slave.

"I'm no ant," Kaiba told the spirit lurking behind Noah's eyes, "I'm a sorcerer."


	28. Chapter 28

Chapter 28

The earth was quaking to its core programming, making them unsteady on their feet as they spread out before their opponent. All of the rewriting of the virtual world had finally caused some problems, as the system stuttered and tried to match numbers, before coming to the realization that none of its coding made any sense. If the Kaiba Corporation had not had firewalls and other security measures, then viruses would be eating apart the world and causing major changes around them. Thankfully the world was bug-free, however; that was not going to stop it from falling apart. Dark Marik had done some irrevocable damage to the coding, and now the world was shutting down as it could no longer support itself.

Realistic animals and insects were the first things to shut down and then vanish, taking a load off of the virtual system and allowing it to continue to run for a while longer. In the Kaiba lab complex in downtown Domino City Mokuba frantically fought the safety features and tried to find more ways to keep the world running. Beside him, Tristan babbled statistics and watched fundamental bars on coloured graphs drop dangerously low, becoming nearly non-functional. I have to give them more time, Mokuba thought determinedly. We can't allow Dark Marik to get away.

Mokuba looked at the map on the screen, and abruptly decided to reduce the landscape around them. He gave the world the option of shutting down certain portions of it, and it complied immediately, destroying the swamp and the ice fields and the canyon in an instant.

"Whatever you did it's working," Tristan cried out in relief, "everything is back to functioning levels."

"Turn on that switch for me," Mokuba pushed his hastily written codes for destroying the landscape out of the way, allowing the sheets to fly out all over the floor. Tristan complied to his request, and Mokuba leaned over the console to grab his headset. He fitted it to his head and gasped out, "Big brother! Joey, Marik, Atem, can you guys hear me?"

His voice echoed through the virtual world, and then there was a reply.

_"Mokuba? What's going on...we're having an earthquake!"_ Joey, Mokuba thought. He sounded okay. His vital statistics flashed on the screen, and he winced at the low oxygen levels, but he could not concern himself with such things at the moment. Joey and the rest would receive the best of care once they exited the virtual world. A team of paramedics were on call as per their instructions.

"You guys need to listen to me, this is extremely important! You have half an hour before the virtual world shuts down completely. Do you understand? I can't stop it, the things that the Rod did to the system have totally ruined it! So I'm going to pull you out of there once your time is up, okay?" Mokuba called into the speaker, his voice sounding distinctly desperate. Please be okay, he thought. Please win and come out okay.

A new voice. _"Okay, Mokuba! We hear you. Half an hour."_ Marik? His vitals were just as bad as Joey's: low oxygen and more smoke inhalation, among all the other problems.

Setting the headset down, Mokuba typed in his other amateurish codes, and a large, red timer appeared in the world. A countdown. He set it with shaking hands. Beside him, Tristan flipped the switch again and they listened to each other breathing with the quiet humming of the machines. "They sounded confident," Tristan offered uncertainly.

"They don't realize we can see through their lies. They're not watching their own heart rate monitors," Mokuba shot back.

..._beep beep beep beep beep_...

xXx

When the large red, blinking timer appeared in the sky, it added only further desperation to the team on the ground and further anger to their opponent. "Thirty minutes, that's all we have, it seems. Not nearly enough time to give you two an adequate death for what you did to me. Endless years in the torturous depths of the Shadow Realm will have to suffice," Dark Marik raised his arms and indicated the surrounding waste. The Millennium Rod hung at his belt, its intense magic probably one of the only things holding the virtual world together as it attempted to send itself into oblivion. "Prepare yourselves. For soon you will be another piece of debris added to this decaying environment."

"Go, Gearfried the Iron Knight!" The black armoured warrior struck out across the garbage between Joey and Dark Marik, gauntleted fists raising to smash the man's face in. Dark Marik reacted unexpectedly: instead of leaping through space via teleportation with the program's help, he dove forward, under the guard of the Knight. Marik shouted out in warning, but then the enemy flicked out the Rod and slid the golden casing off of the bottom. With the Rod —now a sharp weapon— in his hands, Dark Marik jammed it in hard through the armpit, a weak point in the thick armour. Iron Knight was surprised by the skill of the duelist, but even as it leaked bodily fluids it slammed its fist into Dark Marik's cheek.

Gearfried staggered backwards, and buckled to the ground in a heap of digits. Dark Marik licked his lips and bared his teeth.

"He has my memories, Joey," Marik hastily explained, "and I trained myself in both armed and unarmed combat during the years that I led my Rare Hunters. You're going to need more than Iron Knight to bring him down,"

Joey swore under his breath. "Thanks for the heads up, buddy." He answered sarcastically.

"There are three of us, Joey," Atem soothed, "we will do this together." The two nodded at him. As one, they turned back to Dark Marik.

Who had vanished.

And that is when the earth broke apart.

The earthquake that had subsided since being contacted by Mokuba now started up again, and giant cracks formed at their feet, snaking around the debris and under it. They began to widen as the ground shook, and Atem, Joey, and Marik became alarmed as they realized that the cracks were separating them. Joey ran the short distance to reach Atem, but Marik stumbled on his feet as the ground split beneath him. "Ah!" On his hands and knees, Marik struggled to right himself, but the crack expanded with a sudden jerk, and then he was falling. He scrambled madly and managed to catch the lip of the other side, the dirt spraying his head as he held on with both hands. There was nothing but darkness below.

"It's funny, isn't it, how things are happening," murmured a voice so like his own.

Marik had never felt his heart pound so hard. His throat was clenching tight enough that it was becoming hard to breathe, and his eyes blinked out dust as he fought the rising panic in his chest. The thing that he thought had left him for good was above him. The thing that had nearly destroyed so many lives. And his life. He tilted his head upward, and it had never felt so heavy. It was probably the dirt. Or the emotions.

It was strange, seeing his other self in the body of Dr. Yoshida. Without even trying, he saw past the skin, the muscles, the clothing, and the bones. There, lying so delicately, so blurry that you could almost miss it, was the thin outline of another person behind the man's eyes. Another set of eyes, white like a ghost, and shining like the surface of water. The set rippled as he watched, and Marik's breath caught. He was so lost in the vision of his other soul, so stunned by the simple beauty of it, that he'd lost sight of the physical vessel that the soul resided in. Dark Marik glared furiously down at him with his host's face, and Marik was abruptly reminded of the position that he was in.

"Why is it strange?" Marik whispered back. Even with the noise of the earth quaking he knew that he had been heard. It was senseless but it was true.

"You misunderstand me," Dark Marik crouched to get closer, "I mean it really is funny. I have never felt more amused. Just like before, you're using someone else to do your dirty work. That miserable thief. Or the Pharaoh. It doesn't really matter who it is, does it? Just so long as you don't have to fix your own mistakes." He sneered.

Marik snapped back, "That's right. You are a mistake. And soon you'll be erased."

He looked angrier, if at all possible. His true eyes flashed behind Dr. Yoshida's, and his fists came up, fingernails drawing blood as he repressed a shout. His jaws ground together very slightly, and then he forced himself to reply in a calm matter. "Maybe. But at least not before I erase you first," he made an attempt at a cheeky grin, "and take your name. I will be the true Marik. No longer will there be two of us."

Lowering his voice a level, Marik narrowed his eyes as he spoke. "But what do you think will happen then?" He responded in a silky tone.

It surprised him somewhat to see his other self falter. "What?"

Casually, Marik shattered his other personality's aspirations. "Do you think that taking my name is going to make you a new person? A whole person? Do you assume that everyone is going to adhere to what you've decided? That they'll be calling you Marik after I'm gone?" he taunted venomously, seeing his other self's eyes widen, "or has it finally occurred to you that no matter what you do you'll never feel at peace? You'll always be a being of anger and hate and despair, and it's time you realized it. That's all the emotions I gave you when I created you. So no matter how many of your old enemies you destroy, you'll still be a cancerous growth to the rest of society. Never to be accepted. Ever."

"Silence!" Dark Marik slammed his boot down on Marik's hands, who cried out and lost his grip, dropping down into the void. His cries echoed back up to his other personality, who watched Marik's fall intently. The spirit waited for the feeling of relief from the removal of one of his most hated enemies. But there was nothing but his muscles clenching tightly, and his head pounding from the constant migraine that he'd learned to ignore. Whether it was a migraine of dehydration, or the body fighting against its possessor, he did not know. Dark Marik stood listening to the fading cries and could not understand how he could be feeling no giddy delight. Delight is something I cannot feel? He tested out the thought in his mind and found himself confused by it. How can a person not feel all emotions...how can a person not have his own name...

"I am not half a person," he told himself. The ground reared up and rolled him backwards, and Dark Marik watched in dazed interest as the crack that Marik had fallen into closed up. "I am a whole person now," Dark Marik thought out loud firmly.

"Never!" Someone shouted, and he turned in stunned silence as Joey tackled him. They hit the ground hard, and Dark Marik felt the skin on his back slice open on a sharp rock.

Suddenly all he could see was cold stone and flickering fire light. Suddenly all he could hear was his own voice, sobbing. His back was bleeding, and he was tied down, unable to do anything about it. There was someone in his head. Was it him? He couldn't tell. _Please make the pain stop. Make them stop it. I can't take it anymore._ I'm here, thought Dark Marik. I'll make the pain go away. _I hate them! I hate them for doing this to me! I hate this life and these rules! Why couldn't I have been born someone else? Why did I have to be born a tomb keeper?_ Dark Marik sucked in virtual air and dragged his mind back to the present.

"You killed him! You monster!" Joey was screaming, red-faced. His knuckles smashed into Dark Marik's head, who kicked out, trying to roll the man off of him. "How could you? He created you! He _was_ you!"

"He would have killed me if I didn't!" Dark Marik screamed back, lashing out with his nails and leaving thin red streaks down Joey's face. With a desperate shove he managed to push Joey off, and they both pulled themselves to their feet among the trembling junk strewn out all over the broken earth. "He didn't need me anymore and he thought he could just abandon me! Well I won't go away so easily! I won't be thrown away just because his desires have changed! I am what he made me and I can't change even if I wanted to! So I'll destroy everyone he used to hate! All of them! You and the Pharaoh and Yuugi and everyone else who gets in the way!" He shrieked, before lurching forward with his Rod out, casing still off so it could be used to stab and slash. And attack he did. The first movement missed, as Joey jumped sideways, but on the second try he gouged a fair sized wound in the man's arm. Joey cried out in pain, and scrambled backwards, his hand immediately applying pressure to the gash to try and stem the bleeding. In seconds his hand and arm were painted red.

Dark Marik lunged again, his next stab aimed for the heart. "Dark Magic Attack!" Shouted a commanding voice. He reeled as the attack hit, and felt the Millennium Rod lash out against the magic, golden light spewing out over his hands and face. For a minute he saw the world in negatives, and blinked green and blue until the colour leaked back into his mind. His magic settled back into his body with a shudder, and he gasped at how much energy had been spent to reject the force of the attack. It took him a moment to realize that Joey was no longer in front of him, and another to hear the tell-tale swish of a duel monster's cloak before he decided to bolt out of the way. The following Dark Magic Attack ripped up the debris and sent earth flying where he had been standing just moments before. Dark Marik dropped to the ground behind a broken fountain to catch his breath.

With one arm around Joey, Atem tightened the tourniquet made from tearing his own jean leg into a suitably sized strip. Luckily the fabric was thick enough to provide some absorption, though not as much as he'd like. He returned the army knife back to Joey's pocket and winced at the sweat beading on Joey's face. His eyes were closed from the pain, and he gasped out jokingly, "So this is what Bakura felt when the Ring spirit stabbed him, huh...it hurts like you wouldn't even believe..."

"Stay here, Joey," Atem stopped briefly when his Dark Magician, hovering beside him with his staff raised, bought them a little more time by letting loose another Magic Attack at the fountain. Dark Marik would not be held back for long. "The wound is pretty deep. If you move around too much the blood loss could be significant," Atem warned him sternly.

"Yeah, yeah..." Atem moved to stand, but Joey grabbed onto his sleeve, his fingers leaving a bloody streak. The Pharaoh looked down into his eyes and understood. "You have to avenge Marik," Joey mumbled, "he was a good guy. So maybe he did some bad stuff. But he was good, inside, Atem..." he choked on his words and stopped.

Atem nodded and stood to face Dark Marik. His head was still reeling from seeing Marik fall, but he wouldn't let himself think that the man was dead yet, or he might fall into misery like Joey. Because it couldn't be true. Not Marik, not someone so strong, so independent and cunning. And not when he had been standing so close when it had happened, unable to reach him in time. Atem let his thoughts grind to a halt and cut off every feeling that served him no purpose. He had to concentrate on defeating Dark Marik. Before more people got hurt. Beside him his most trusted duel monster shot him a concerned glance and he said, "Watch Joey. Do not let any more harm come to him." Dark Magician pulled back towards the injured duelist obediently.

The fountain was shredded. Stone was sliced so thin it could have been bread, and water poured into the cracks in the earth. Dark Marik was pulling cards from his deck, and, apparently finding what he needed, called one forth into existence. "Giant Trunade!" He yelled. Atem dove, knowing first-hand how quickly the winds of a spell card could kick up. With only slivers of stone between them, Dark Marik struck.

His Item's magic unleashed, and a brilliant purple smoke, laser straight, shot forward into the Puzzle. It knocked Atem several feet back, right into the zone of the tornado kicking up. The earth rolled beneath him, and split apart, and the winds twirled in an effortless dance around him. Feathers whipped past his face, and Atem felt his feet lift from the rocking ground. For a moment there was the horrifying sense of being weightless, and he instinctively reached outward, attempting to grab onto something, anything. The act was pointless, however, and he soon found himself being flung into the high speed winds.

Puzzle! Atem thought in his mind. Lend me your strength! His aura began to glow bright red, a harsh contrast to the purple aura surrounding the enemy. Atem reached inside of himself and hurled his magic outward, hurled the red outward, and the winds were cut clean through as he dislodged himself from the spell card. He landed on his side, and slid into a poorly executed roll, shoulders almost dislocated but thankfully still working. Then he got to his feet, disgruntled and ready to fight.

Dark Marik set another card.

xXx

Staring at Noah had left Kaiba feeling pitifully sick, and he was forced to turn to face the other direction so that he didn't have to look at the dying image wrapped up in chains. His room was still very much a prison, and the door had long since faded into the wall. Dark Marik definitely did not want him getting out to join the others in a fight. He was irate about being left behind, but being exhausted and somewhat beaten from his Genie's fists had left him wondering if he didn't deserve a little rest. Not that he wasn't planning on getting back into the fight, because he most certainly was. He just didn't know how to go about doing it.

He was in the process of knocking all of the walls to find out if they were hollow or would need a large brute force to punch through them when someone fell through the floor.

"AH!"

Kaiba jumped, duel disk raised and one eye on his Genie who settled closer to Noah to protect the young child. Blue-Eyes hummed at the top of his deck, and he wet his lips as he prepared to loose her might on Dark Marik.

It was not Dark Marik.

"Ptah, this is ridiculous...workmanship...ceiling just broke instantly." The man lying on the floor rolled over onto his back, cradling his head with a pained expression. Kaiba's eyebrows creased in confusion.

"Marik? What are you doing here? _How_ did you get here?" Kaiba demanded, and lowered his arm with a sigh, striding up to the man. The Genie relaxed a bit behind him. Concerned, Kaiba pushed the ceiling pieces off of Marik, and got a good look at him. "Tell me where it hurts. Are you dizzy? Is your vision blurry?"

Grinning snidely up into his face, Marik groaned, "All of the above." And then he stopped grinning and stared at Kaiba with startled features. "Did you know that we are quite deep underground at the moment?"

"What?" Kaiba's mind whirled at the implications of his words. He turned his head upward, and got a good look through the hole, at the rock and dirt beyond. "So your other self transported the room underground?" He was suddenly glad that he had not in fact tried to escape earlier by knocking down the walls. The entire room would have caved in and he would have been buried alive. Kaiba was not sure how he'd escape that one. Marik was murmuring to himself.

"So that's why we couldn't find you...of course...why didn't we think of that?" He grumbled. Pushing himself up on his elbows, he winced and Kaiba awkwardly steadied him with one hand on his back. "We were worried about you...about what had happened,"

He seemed to be all right in a sitting position, so Kaiba pulled away a bit to give him more room to breathe. "I'm fine. A little tired, nothing more."

"Says you. Your face is a black and blue mess." Marik returned exasperatedly. Kaiba winced at the description, but knew it was probably true. Instead of answering, however, he turned towards Noah, and Marik followed his gaze. "Is that...who I think it is?" Marik asked in disbelief.

Reluctantly, Kaiba responded, "This is my adoptive brother Noah. The other you gave him this image to upset me, most likely. Or perhaps it was for his own amusement."

"It seems that if he did want to upset you, it worked." Marik noted, watching Kaiba's vaguely bothered expression turn entirely blank as he turned his head to answer.

"Shut up."

Looking around at his new location, Marik tilted his head with a frown and muttered in confusion, "Why is the chandelier on the floor?"

A snort. "The room flipped. What you actually fell through was technically the floor. We're sitting on the ceiling." He explained.

"I see."

They sat perfectly still, with Kaiba staring at his brother, whose eyes were closed and whose breath indicated sleep. Marik rested his throbbing head in his knees and tried to convince himself he didn't have a concussion. But he mind was too intelligent to think otherwise —and in too much pain— and so he bit his tongue to fight the desire to sleep and tapped Kaiba on the shoulder. "We need to help the others."

"And how, exactly, do you propose we go about doing that?" Came the solid retort.

"...What about Different Dimension Gate? If it works for duel monsters it could work for us, right? Technically we're removed from play. Let's use the Gate to bring us back in," Marik thought aloud.

Blue eyes met violet as they stared thoughtfully at each other. And then, Kaiba admitted, "I think that just might work..."

Marik sighed gratefully. "Good. Because there's something else that you should know. I assume you couldn't hear the announcement down here. Mokuba says the virtual world is collapsing. We only have half an hour to get out before it shuts down,"

Kaiba was on his feet instantly. He waved to his Genie, and demanded he pick up Noah and carry him over. Shakily getting to his feet, Marik flinched at the pain lancing through his muscles and joints and tried to ignore it. He eyed the Genie with the boy in his arms and pointedly looked at Kaiba, who was going through his deck to select the Different Dimension Gate. When he glanced up as he set the card, he caught Marik's gaze and returned it with a glare. "I am not leaving him behind," he stated, slowly, to emphasize his decision.

"Yes...but...correct me if I'm wrong...isn't Noah trapped here? Because he can't return to his body?"

The Gate was a large structure, taller than the room could hold, and it took up enough space that they had to back up as it ate up ground where it appeared and burst through the ceiling. It sat on a plinth of solid metal, which was gold and steel with engravings carved along every face. A rainbow of colours swirled in the Gate, and they frowned as they wondered how to climb it to step through to the other side. Kaiba thought of the best idea, and commanded his Genie to place Noah on the top before coming to get them. He turned to Marik with a cold look as the duel monster left their side for the moment and floated upward. "His mind will die and thus his body if we don't take him with us. Unlike last time, when he was able to survive by hiding himself in the core of the program while the rest of the world fell apart, he is trapped now by your other personality. He can't escape. So we need to attempt to bring him back out of the virtual world. Or that will be the end of him."

Staring at Kaiba's bruised yet determined face, Marik wisely decided not to further probe the issue.

La Jinn scooped up Kaiba first in its arms, who did not like the idea of being in that position, but he had little choice. After it had dropped him gently on the plinth top he came back for Marik. Then they stood there while the Genie gathered up Noah once more in its arms.

With several deep breaths, Kaiba said, "All together now. I don't want the Gate closing on any one of us."

"Yeah," Marik agreed, "on three?" He received a curt nod in response. The Genie drifted closer to the Gate.

"One," Kaiba muttered, "two."

"Three!"

xXx

Mokuba and Tristan stood quietly beside the pods of their four friends (the thought that Marik might not consider them friends did not occur to them), a little alarmed at the vision that they were presented with. Due to the Shadow Game that the virtual world had been turned into, each horrible thing that happened to them in the virtual world translated onto their real bodies. Each were bruised, with scorched and torn clothing. At one point their skin had gotten quite red from what was probably frost bite, judging by their location at the time that they'd starting seeing the changes. But the latest development was even more frightening than all the bruises, frost bites and burn marks combined. Joey now sported a deep wound in his arm, and Marik had shuddered violently in his pod some minutes before, giving the impression that he'd just been hit with something hard. Mokuba prayed for no internal bleeding or broken bones. The bloody sleeves from his elbows down were bad enough. Taking another look at his brother had left him with a lump in his throat, at seeing his swollen face and cut lip. All of them had certainly taken a beating. The best off was most undoubtedly Atem. They attributed this to the fact that he was the bearer of the Puzzle. It would have been providing the most protection on him and only some on everyone else, they supposed.

"Tell me why we can't open the pods and bandage them properly," Tristan demanded of Mokuba.

He sighed miserably. "The virtual world is too close to self-destruction. Altering the contained environment of those connected to the world could have detrimental effects, including, but not limited to: jerking the mind back into its physical body, giving those in the world a second set of senses which come from the real world, and doubling the amount of pain they feel for every wound their real and virtual bodies have." Mokuba leaned on his brother's glass lid and looked at the twitching eyelids, indicating the dream-like state that Kaiba was in. He started when Tristan slammed his fist into Joey's lid with a angry curse.

"Come on, buddy. Come on, you can do it. Bring him down. You and Atem and Kaiba and Marik. We're counting on you...so many people are counting on you..." Tristan rubbed his knuckles with a grimace, noting for future reference not to lash out at anything else.

A computerized voice sounded over the console's speakers at the back of the room.

"Ten minutes remaining until shut down."


	29. Chapter 29

Chapter 29

They had stepped into a war zone. There was no other explanation for it. The Gate had snapped shut and disappeared once they had exited it, and now they stood in the middle of a desolate landscape feeling quite at a loss. It looked for all the world like a tornado and a earthquake had hit the location, which, after Kaiba had made the remark, Marik had replied that he could only confirm the earthquake. La Jinn hovered pensively beside his master, gently holding onto the sleeping child. Marik and Kaiba had taken one look at the timer hovering in the grey sky and had switched from feeling wary to feeling desperate. They only had ten minutes in the world before Mokuba pulled them out. Fantastic, was the mutual sarcastic thought.

A figure sat on the ground in the mud and garbage, and both immediately identified it as Joey. Kaiba and Marik rushed forward even though their injuries cried out at them, and the Genie followed close behind.

The blond individual snapped his head up as he heard footsteps coming towards him. "Joey!" Marik called, "hey, are you okay?"

Joey paled like he was seeing a ghost, and then gabbled, "What the...you...but you're..." he scrambled backwards a bit, revealing his bloody arm, "this is a hallucination. That nut job's messin' with the programming again, huh? Well I won't fall for it!" He shouted at them.

At Marik's side Kaiba made an exasperated sound. "Oh, shut up, mutt. The program's at the end of its life, do you honestly think that he would be stupid enough to rewrite more coding at this point in time?" He demanded, and walked right up to Joey, who eyed the man towering over him with somewhat of a worried and confused expression.

"But...but...he died...and you disappeared," Joey stammered.

"Nah," Marik joined Kaiba's side and crouched at Joey's feet, looking hesitantly at the arm streaked in blood, "I just fell into that room that my other self had locked Kaiba into. Which turned out to be underground. We couldn't find it, remember? That's where he had hidden it this whole time. And Kaiba was just sitting down there. He's not an illusion, either. We came up out of the earth by using his Different Dimension Gate. And here we are." He finished his explanation and gazed into Joey's face until the man shook his head, and then dropped his shoulders as he relaxed.

"Man, I..." Joey choked up, and abruptly got cheerful. Kaiba leaned down and got a better look at the bandaged arm. "I thought you were dead. I told Atem to avenge you," he turned away for a second, and hastily scrubbed his face from mud and unshed tears. Marik just shifted awkwardly; he didn't have any idea about what he should say. "And you!" Joey jammed one finger in Kaiba's chest, who looked at the opposing appendage like it was a wriggling worm that he was being presented with. But Kaiba made no move to dislodge it. "What does he mean, you were just sitting down there? What, were you just waiting for us to come help you out? Not that we weren't looking for you, I mean, we levelled the mansion to try and find that room but—"

"I was not just sitting down there," Kaiba interjected shortly, "I was restraining Noah and attempting to decide on the best course of action."

Marik offered teasingly, enjoying his inclusion in their petty argument, "I was the one who told him to use the Gate."

Kaiba shot him a look and Joey grinned widely, "Typical."

It was Kaiba who decided to bring up the matter of the situation first. "Now, as much as I would like to continue this little conversation, I think that Marik and I need to be brought back up to speed, Joey. What happened?" He made a vague hand gesture to the environment and to Joey's arm.

With a shaky breath, Joey dropped his smile and flexed the muscles of his injured arm tentatively. "Okay, long story short? Dark Marik attacked me with the Rod, and then Atem saved me with the Dark Magician, who later got destroyed. Dark Marik cast a Giant Trunade (which is why things are more ripped up), and Atem told me to sit out cause I was a liability and now they're off on their dragons trying to kill each other."

"Dragons?" Kaiba breathed.

They all looked up.

Fire lit up the sky like the apocalypse was being cast down from the heavens, and two massive winged creatures dipped and rose around each other, jaws snapping to tear holes in the enemy's body. On the backs of the creatures sat figures, misshapen from the terrible view that the group on the ground had. Both the creatures and the figures were like blurred shadows high in the clouds, highlighted only briefly when one of the mounts spat fire and the other flapped its wings hard to toss heavy winds into the space before it. But Joey, Marik, and Kaiba could see some colour surrounding the figures, which was something rather unexpected. Brilliant red and purple auras from the figures smoked out in waves, clashing with the opposing mount and rider and sending magical shockwaves through the atmosphere. Even way down on the ground, all three fighters could feel the after effects, like an icy sizzling running under their skin. It almost felt similar to having pins and needles in a limb, after having poor blood circulation, only this was anything but painful. It was electric. It was power. It was something that felt so familiar to each of them, and yet was so strange at the same time.

As his two companions eyed the skies Marik fought his shivering and tried to ignore the purple aura of his other self. He remembered the feel of his magic only too well, and it sickened him to know that it had once been his own. And still was, as far as he knew.

"We have less than ten minutes to go," said Marik, and Joey and Kaiba returned their gaze to him, "we have to join the Pharaoh and help him. No matter what..."

"My Blue-Eyes has the greatest strength. Joey, you still have your Thousand Dragon, however—"

"I'm not sitting this one out," Joey cut in. They both looked at him, and he got to his feet to prove his point. "If you're going to help then I will too. The bleeding's stopped now anyway. So I'm not a hindrance anymore. And I'm no more injured than you guys," he added stubbornly.

Marik could feel every inch of him aching, and his sleeves still stuck to his elbows where the blood had yet to dry. "Point taken," he agreed.

As they summoned their dragons Marik felt he had to remind Kaiba about Noah. He was curtly told that his team of technicians as well as Mokuba had already been informed that they should attempt to reattach his mind to his body, and that they already knew that he had made contact with Noah. But there was one last problem to take care of, Marik knew. Noah would have no chance of leaving the virtual environment unless his mind was released from the Rod's influence. It was Kaiba's primary reason for being there, among all the other reasons, and so as he stroked the shining scales of his dragon Marik knew he was pouring all of his concentration into mid-flight tactics.

Kaiba would fly alone, as he worked best in solitary conditions. Marik sat behind Joey and questioned him quietly on how he was holding up. He only got a terrible joke in response, which, if Marik had learned anything about the man, was as good an indication as any that he would be okay.

They ascended into the dreary skies, leaving the Genie with Noah on the ground. The sound of wing beats pounding back dead air filled their ears.

Above them two sorcerers fought for supremacy. And the consequence of losing was death.

xXx

Curse of Dragon reared back, avoiding the swiping claws of Gray Wing and providing a buffer from Dark Marik's Shadow magic. It gave Atem a brief but crucial reprieve, and as he encouraged his monster forward a wing beat he shot another wave of Shadows through the air to stun his opponent. Dark Marik blocked with the Rod, and Atem raised an arm over his eyes as the Item pounded against the realities of the virtual world to suck the Shadows into limbo. Gray Wing dived under his Dragon, and Atem gripped one of the bony protrusions on his creature's back as the opposing monster bucked underneath them. Wings scraped against wings and Gray Wing's teeth left painful tears across Dragon's belly. It roared and flipped over, and Atem barely had any warning before he knew to hold on tight. But he had learned to recognize a flying monster's wing signals, and his Curse of Dragon bent the tips of its wings inward while arching its tail before it executed a flip. The world turned over and purple magic rushed through his ears, leaving a faint splashing sound in its wake, like an object plunking into deeper waters due to a wave.

It was strange seeing his opponent upside-down for the brief amount of time that it took his Dragon to avoid Gray Wing's next claw strike and turn right-side-up again, only now behind the Gray Wing. The angry scowl across the host's face had looked almost like a depressed twist of his lips from the different view, and his dark hair had looked distressingly dishevelled on his head. His thoughts snapped back to the danger he was in and he decided to ignore Dark Marik's host while he dealt with him. He could feel his Curse of Dragon's neck stretch taunt, and then every muscle in it contracted in a heartbeat, sending a fireball at the enemy from its stomach. Heat blasted his face, and for several precious seconds all he could see was orange and red in front of him.

Then Gray Wing burst through the flame, and just like all the other times his attack had hit, the creature waved away its destruction and reset its coding. As the enemy flew overhead, nearly nicking him with its long legs, Atem wondered how much longer Dark Marik could hold out. The more he denied the rules of the program that made up the virtual world, then the more it would fall apart. Or rather, Atem thought, the faster it would fall apart. Because nothing would stop the program from shutting down now, even if Dark Marik did stop messing with it.

Gray Wing gained altitude, circling above its opponent. Curse of Dragon pulled back and breathed a stream of flame upward, but the enemy had the advantage now, and it dodged easily. Dark Marik called upon his magic once more. Atem prepared a suitable defence.

It had taken some time but he had started to get the hang of thickening the Shadows in the air to block out most magic attacks. It was almost like calling on the Realm, only instead of pulling himself into it, he was pulling the substance that it was made of into the atmosphere surrounding him. Forceful demands and nudges of power dragged the Shadows against themselves, and all at once he would have a block of black Shadows, quite capable of being torn down, but it helped to repel the opposing magic.

Dark Marik's purple wave rammed into his block and rebounded into empty space, but some managed to circumvent it and leak into Atem's Shadow field, draining him of his energy and strength. Eyesight blurred and heart thundering in his head, Atem blinked water and stared at the vision that he thought must be real, lancing from up from below through the skies.

White Lightning struck as quick as its namesake, punching a major hole in Gray Wing's shoulder. Its foreleg was now sheared off, and it screamed as it gushed blood and numbers into the air, but its master rebuilt it before it could claim defeat. "Again!" Kaiba was shouting, "White Lightning!"

Kaiba, thought the Pharaoh, you are all right. You made it. You came to help me. Relief slugged through his entire being, and he smiled gratefully at the help, though Kaiba could not see it. Then the relief faded and Atem started to think about strategy. And he saw Kaiba's plan: if he could continue to blast away at Gray Wing, then Dark Marik would be distracted enough for Atem to attack. He would need to focus completely on resurrecting his monster and wouldn't be able to use his magic for anything else. But would it work? What could the spirit do to retaliate?

Well, he could create illusions of himself, for one thing.

They had never seen so many Gray Wings all at once. All had an angry Rod-wielding rider, and all twisted and ducked and flew hard around them. In an instant they had lost sight of the real one, and Kaiba reacted violently to this. He summoned his second and last Blue-Eyes to the air (the other had been destroyed at the swamp), and both let loose a barrage of Lightning attacks into the mass of dragons around them. Atem egged his Curse of Dragon closer to Kaiba, and he swooped in to shout, "Kaiba! This will take far too long! So long as he has the Rod he can keep commanding the virtual world to create more images of himself! We need to find some other way!"

_"Five minutes remain until shut down." _Said the omnipresent voice of the virtual world program, echoing throughout the last of the world that still worked, however destroyed that it was.

Kaiba screamed back at him, "There is no other option!"

High winds buffeted them suddenly, and their Dragons flapped hard to maintain their altitude and distance to each other. Kaiba and Atem whirled in their seats, searching for the Gray Wing which had launched the wind attack. But all of them looked exactly alike, wings flapping hard to imitate the motions that the real one went through when it forced air to pick up its speed and strike at its enemies. Five minutes, thought Kaiba, I need more time. For Noah. He and Mokuba are the only family I have...

Winds battered them again, stronger than before, and the two duelists knew that the Gray Wing must be much closer. They jerked around, straining their eyes for anything that would give Dark Marik away. Then, all of a sudden, there was a guttural growl and a panicked flapping, and then the real Gray Wing slammed into Blue-Eyes and knocked Kaiba from his seat.

He fell; down, down, and then there was Thousand Dragon, coming up underneath him, and Kaiba landed harshly on its wide back. "Closer!" Atem shouted at Curse of Dragon, and the creature skimmed forward through the air to crash into Gray Wing.

The copies of the dragon and rider dived to their level, and yelled and snarled and flew all around them, but Atem only had eyes for the original. Hands scrabbling along his creature's exoskeleton-like back, he crawled on all fours to the opposing dragon's head. Curse of Dragon dug its teeth into Gray Wing's neck, and held on in a death grip. Dark Marik was silent; his Rod hanging at his belt and his arms outward as if to brace himself. Atem was not about to defy his expectations.

He leaped.

Landing was difficult with both dragons writhing in each other's grip as they attempted to kill the other. He nearly slipped off to fall through the narrow space between the wings and slamming bodies, but managed to hang on and grab Dark Marik with one hand. Their bodies jerked as they punched and pounded with fists and Shadows, and yelled nonsense words as they tried to pin each other down.

Dark Marik was laughing. It was a horrible sound, barren of all happiness and understanding, like the laughter of a mad man. It was the noise one made when something so appalling had occurred that crying would not do justice to the pent up emotions in the heart. It was the sound of relief and desperation and misery and depression. "This is it!" Dark Marik beamed at him, "this is the feeling! This is the reason!"

"What reason?" Atem shouted at him, alarmed.

Dragging the Pharaoh closer, Dark Marik whispered in his ear. "This is what it feels like to lose your mind," Atem yelled out in pain, his nails digging into his opponent's skin as he tried to pry him off. He has gone insane, Atem thought in distress, if he was even sane to begin with. "This is why you want to send me to the Shadows, isn't it, Pharaoh? This feeling of utter despair! So this is what losing feels like! This is your reason!" He laughed even louder, and Atem gave one last push, putting the last of his failing strength into it.

His legs and arms flailed, and then Dark Marik began to fall, his true eyes widening behind his host's, his true face screaming even as his host's throat fell silent.

Puzzle clinked against Rod, and then Atem shouted, "You lose!"

And he reached forward, and grasped the Item with both hands.

Dark Marik fell into oblivion, but not before he ripped his own spirit out from within the Rod, screaming in his silent voice one last command before he did so. Atem could only make out one word on his lips, and he paled as the Rod answered his last call. Ancient magic warped the system for one final time, and then the man falling down far below disappeared with a blink.

_"Return..."_

xXx

"Pull them out, pull them out!" Tristan was screaming.

Mokuba punched in the command with frenzied movements, and then the pods shut down, one by one. Green lights winked on the console as Joey's glass lid lifted, his mind now released. "Mokuba!" Tristan indicated the paramedics that were rushing in with stretchers.

"Just pull back the visors and help them onto the stretchers," Mokuba told the paramedics. He cried out with no small amount of relief as more green lights flashed across his screens. Marik's, Kaiba's, and then Atem's lids lifted as their minds returned to their bodies.

Tristan was pushed aside as the medical staff crowded around the pods and lifted the four men onto stretchers. He called out to Joey as he hopped agitatedly on his feet, "Hey, man, you awake?"

"Mhm..." Joey blearily lifted his eyelids and twisted his neck slightly as he was wheeled away on the stretcher. "I'll be fine..."

Both Mokuba and Tristan kept in stride with the paramedics, who turned down a hallway into the emergency exit. Outside four separate ambulances waited. Tristan automatically piled into the same ambulance as Joey, and Mokuba watched Atem's and Marik's stretcher disappear from view as the back doors to their vehicles snapped shut.

His headset was beeping.

Mokuba tapped the speaker and said hastily, "What is it?"

The technician on the other end mumbled, "Sir...this is...unbelievable, but...Noah..."

"Spit it out," Mokuba demanded.

"He's awake," the tone could not have been more shocked, "your brother's awake."

Mokuba felt his eyes become moist, and he swallowed painfully. "See that he's okay, and brought out of the tank. Please." He added, and listened for the affirmative before turning off the speaker.

"Mokuba, you coming?" Tristan demanded, and the paramedics waited impatiently for him to join his brother so that all the ambulances could set off for the hospital.

He nodded and jumped in beside his brother. The door slammed shut and the driver got behind the wheel. "We can go," he told the driver, and then the vehicle started moving, leading the three others down the street with their lights flashing and alarms blaring. He watched as the paramedic ran through a routine and rattled off information through a radio so that the hospital would be prepared when they arrived. Mokuba sat quietly and fought the urge to hold his brother's hand (he was older now, and it would look childish).

The elder Kaiba forced his eyes open and caught Mokuba's gaze instantly. "We're on our way to the hospital, just as you had planned, big brother. Tristan's riding with Joey. We'll be there in a few minutes, okay?" He answered Kaiba's unasked questions like he had been rehearsing, and Kaiba nodded with a sigh. His eyes started to slide shut, but abruptly he reached out and grasped Mokuba's hand. "Yeah? What do you need?" Mokuba felt miserable seeing his brother like this, but he wouldn't break down, not when Seto needed him to be strong. Nevertheless he squeezed Kaiba's hand tightly and leaned closer.

"Tell me...did we manage to..." Kaiba tried to figure out how best to phrase it, but Mokuba gave him what he wanted to hear immediately.

"Yeah," he whispered reassuringly, "you did. Noah's gonna be okay. He's finally out, after all this time..."

Kaiba slipped into sleep, his concerns abated. "Good..."

In the ambulance behind them, Atem slept just as deeply, but half as soundly. He was the only one who knew that their problems were far from over, and his dreams reflected that. Terrifying monsters leered at him from behind darkened veils. Laughter reverberated across his dreaming world.

Laughter from a dead man.

xXx

He was sitting in some sort of metal glowing machine, with a black visor fitted over his eyes. For a minute all he did was sit there, muttering to himself that his vision was real and that he wasn't hallucinating or dreaming. Once he had convinced himself that he was awake, he pushed the visor away and sat up.

_The pain._

Gasping with shock and moaning aloud, he shuddered as he felt every muscle, every organ, and every other piece of himself aching. He was also bleeding. In his entire life he had never been this hurt, even if he were to combine every past injury into one. Panting as he got over the first wave of agony, he turned his head very slowly as he examined the area that he was in. It was a sparse room with metal walls and a concrete floor, and little to no lighting from a few bulbs hanging overhead. Another machine sat next to the one that he was in, and a shabby desk with a mash of electronics rested in the corner. A rickety old set of stairs twisted upward into the darkness beyond a wall, making him guess that he was underground. It was like a set out of a grim horror movie, save for the lack of dust and insects, he supposed. Really, all he needed now was a dead body.

{Ha ha hah ha.}

Jerking in his seat, he bit down on his tongue to keep from crying out and kept very still, hoping that he had just been imagining the voice that he had heard.

{No, I'm afraid that you haven't,} Taunted the voice in a threatening undertone.

There was an image forming beside the stairs, and he stared in shock at the ghost that appeared. He was tall, and distinctly Egyptian. His blond hair was spiked, and he wore a dark cloak that only made his purple eyes pop out of his face. Continuing to stare, he began to shake all over as the ghost smiled sickeningly.

"You're the voice from that golden object..." he whispered in terror, and then his eyes dropped to his belt as he continued to shake. The golden sceptre was gone. "Ah! That's...but..."

"Yes," murmured the ghost, "I discarded it. I have no more use for it."

"But...you were in it, I thought that—"

He nearly blinked and missed the image of the ghost snapping forward, now standing over him with a grave expression. "And now," he said, very sternly, "I am in you. In fact..."

The ghost was changing his shape. Blond hair darkened and flattened. Height shortened. Skin got lighter, and facial features altered. Quite suddenly he was staring at himself.

"In fact," continued the ghost in dark amusement, "now I _am _you."

His other self, this ghost that was possessing him, used his face and made a frightening grin. He could only gulp and enquire despondently, "Your other image...it seems so familiar...that was who you possessed before...?"

"Yes," said the ghost smoothly.

"And.." he voiced his concern before he lost his nerve, "what happened to him?"

"Ah...well..." twisting his face once more, the ghost encircled him once, and he could feel his piercing eyes on the back of his head. From behind him, the spirit murmured panic into his ears. "He thought that he could get rid of me, you see. And that would not do, not at all. So I killed him."


	30. Chapter 30

Chapter 30

The Pharaoh opened his eyes to the most wonderful sight that he had seen since he had been resurrected. At the foot of his hospital bed sat Yuugi and a pile of junk food, and his partner was studiously working his way through a bag of potato chips with all the fervour of someone who had not eaten well in days. Yuugi's hair was a mess on his head, and his eyes looked groggy from little sleep, but his complexion had completely returned to normal. He was dressed in what Atem thought he looked best in: layers of black, leather, and silver chains. And Yuugi was absolutely delighted. He was grinning goofily, and as Atem stirred in his sheets, his turned his head up from his indulgence with a warm look on his face. Dropping the chips, Yuugi gave him a brilliant smile and moved over to hug Atem, who accepted it with a sigh. "You have no idea how glad I am to see that you are doing well," Atem told him.

"You know I feel exactly the same way," Yuugi agreed, and then pulled away with a frown, "I mean in the sense that you're okay. I mean I know you're beat up, but you're going to get better. Not that it isn't serious, because it is, I just mean—"

Atem laughed loudly. "I know exactly what you mean, Yuugi." Yuugi grinned again, and then pushed Atem's legs over pointedly. He dragged a backpack that had been lying on the floor beside the bed and set it on his lap, pulling open the zippers.

"Well," Yuugi teased, "you are hurt, and I have decided to make you feel better. You don't have to worry, since I'm going to take care of you. And I know exactly what you need."

"Oh?" Atem sat up in amusement. His body still ached, but he noticed one of those tubes attached to his arm, and he supposed that the fluid in his system was helping with the pain. The room he was in was rather large, and had many bright windows and a connecting bathroom. Some chairs rested against the wall, and a cupboard sat beside the bed. The door was closed, and it had a window on it, but the curtain over it was shut.

Yuugi paused thoughtfully. "Joey, who's across the hall from you, told me to tell you that Marik never died. All of you got out okay, but I guess something happened and you guys got separated for a while?" He questioned.

A weight lifted off of his shoulders, a weight he hadn't even realized was there until Yuugi had mentioned Marik's name. "Yes. Numerous times. I am relieved that everyone is all right," he felt himself relax further as the words sunk in. No one had died. Everyone was okay. Somehow in his heart he had known that Marik would be alive, though. It had seemed too impossible at the time that Atem couldn't imagine him being dead.

"And something else that is wonderful happened," Yuugi told him, and Atem tilted his head in confusion. Softly, he went on, "Kaiba's team of technicians managed to bring back Noah's mind from the virtual world. He's back in his body now, recovering in this hospital with you guys."

His mind reeled with the information, and he placed a hand over his eyes as he considered this. "That is..."

"I know," said Yuugi, "really unbelievable. Mokuba and Kaiba have theories. Like that the Rod messing with Noah's mind had something to do with it. That maybe when he was released from the Rod's control his mind was jolted free of everything and could immediately return to his body, you know?"

"After all of this time..." Atem said wondrously. Being bombarded with these two pieces of information made his mind spin with a dozen thoughts a second, and he shook his head as he tried to take it all in. And then he decided that shaking his head was not, in fact, a good idea. His injuries were still aching. Turning again when Yuugi nodded to the bedside stand, he saw that the Puzzle was resting beside the lamp, and that it was with the Rod. "Is it...?" He reached out hesitantly and brushed his fingers over the Rod, and felt it hum in response. The Item recognized that it had been won in a Shadow Game, and now it knew Atem as its new owner.

"Real? Yeah," Yuugi answered unnecessarily. Atem could tell with one touch. "I guess you were able to pull it from the real world, into the Game that had been called...and then back out through your virtual pod," Yuugi sighed, "at least it's safe in your hands now."

Two Items to watch over. It was a heavy duty, and only reminded him sharply of the fact that the evil that he had been called back for was still not gone. He needed to think about telling the others as soon as possible. "Atem?" Yuugi asked, and his good mood faded a little as he saw Atem's eyes glaze over. He looked distinctly troubled. Tentatively, Yuugi changed the subject. "Téa and Serenity called when you were in the virtual world. Two nights ago. They said that they're coming back today,"

If anything, this only made Atem even more bothered. "Partner, there is something that you must know. I did not actually manage to send Dark Marik into the Shadow Realm. I was able to take back the Rod, yes, but he escaped out of the virtual world before I could do anything about him. He is likely recovering at the moment, and making new plans to get back at us."

Yuugi was silent for a minute, and then he gave Atem a sad smile. "I kind of suspected that. It all seems so...anticlimactic, in a way. Or maybe that's because I wasn't a part of that battle."

"You are not surprised?" Atem just stared at the lack of reaction that he was receiving.

"I think...that I already knew, deep down. It was the way that you looked at the Rod, Other Me. Like the world was this dreadful bleak place and you'd just been given the worst of it to deal with," Yuugi mumbled.

Grasping his hands, Atem said resolutely, "I will finish this. It is just going to take me awhile longer, that is all. But now that he does not have the Rod, his defeat is that much more assured."

In a warning tone, Yuugi returned, "But you need to rest first and heal from your injuries,"

"I will rest as long as we have no idea where he is, but not a second longer," Atem told him, gently, but with the tone that he so often used against opponents in a duel. Yuugi would not attempt to argue to change his mind. It would be fruitless.

"Whatever you think, Atem."

Atem gave him a wry look. "If only you were so agreeable all the time."

His partner only grinned again, before starting to pull things from the backpack in his lap. Atem's mouth started to twitch as he got a good look at what was inside. "Games, Yuugi?" He quirked a brow.

"Games," Yuugi said firmly, "and potato chips."

"Potato chips." Atem repeated.

"This is very important, Other Me. If you're going to get better you'll have to agree. No scowling at all."

"Hmm," said Atem doubtfully.

Yuugi only laughed.

xXx

Stacking the latest reports on his brother's lap, Mokuba set aside the coffee mug and glanced at the laptop on the end of the bed, where production quotas ran down the centre of the screen. Kaiba scribbled furiously on a notepad, going through his daybook and deciding what needed to immediately be worked on. "You know," Mokuba said cautiously, "you don't have to do everything all at once. The company isn't going to fall apart while you spend a few days in the hospital. And you already rescheduled meetings when the whole trouble with the Rod started. So you're free to relax a little, Seto."

Pausing to glance at his brother, Kaiba responded, "I refuse to do nothing while I'm laying here waiting for my wounds to heal. In fact, doing nothing is not going to make them heal any faster. I should be doing something in order to prepare for the workload that I'll be taking on the moment that I am better." He opened a folder and ran through files, making more scribbles. Well, they weren't exactly scribbles. Mokuba had to admit that even when his brother was writing in a hurry he still managed to print neatly, and in perfect lines, too.

"Yeah, but...I'm kinda worried about you. You've just got out of that crazy battle. Don't you want to ease back on working for a bit?" He sat on the edge of his brother's bed, swinging his legs absently.

Kaiba scoffed. "That wouldn't really be me, though, would it?"

Grinning easily, Mokuba shook his head. "I guess not."

They sat in companionable silence while Kaiba shifted through the mass of paper that Mokuba had brought to him at his request. There was also a gourmet breakfast platter on a table, and imported coffee from some location that Mokuba couldn't pronounce. His brother was more than a handful for the medical staff with his high expectations, and they were overly relieved when he had returned with all of the things that Kaiba had demanded. A cell phone and a Blackberry and a calculator also rested on the mess of papers, giving Kaiba all the tools he needed to work in peace and request more things if needed. Mokuba didn't mind giving in to all of his demands. He knew it eased Seto's mind to have all of these things with him, and to have work to do. So he was more than happy to provide this for him. Except for his concern about his welfare, but Seto seemed to be doing all right.

Mokuba wondered what was different about him. It was like an odd feel in the air, like a cold draft that he felt when he was around him. Which didn't really make any sense the more that he thought about it. The room was at the perfect temperature, he had seen to it. But then the cold wasn't really a physical cold, anyway. It was like a mind cold. Or something. His thoughts got slow and dank whenever he drew closer to his brother, and it took him a while to figure out that it was something in the air that was causing it. Or something in the space around him, anyway.

Regardless, it was a silly complaint, and he was certainly not going to bring it up.

"How is Noah," Seto asked.

Yawning, Mokuba looked at his watch. "He's been sleeping for a while. The doctors aren't sure when he'll wake up, since nothing like this has ever happened before. I mean, he was in that virtual reality system for over ten years. Nobody is sure how his body will cope with suddenly having a mind again. They think that he might need growth hormones to stimulate his body to grow once more. It was in that tank for too long and maybe it's still in some kind of stasis, you know? Anyway, we'll figure it all out when he wakes up."

Kaiba considered his sibling. "But they're sure it's not a coma."

"Right. He's just sleeping."

The CEO sighed, and leaned back into the pillows, his fingers still grasping his pen and notepad. "You should get some sleep. You stayed up all through the night and all through yesterday watching our progress through the virtual world."

"Same to you, only you were in it."

"I got some sleep last night," Kaiba reminded him.

"That was due to your massive injuries," Mokuba pointed out sourly.

Kaiba elected to stay silent, and it was one of the few times that Mokuba could almost say that he'd won an argument with him. If his brother had not been so tired and in pain, then perhaps he would have made a retort. But as it was he merely waved at Mokuba to take his notepad and pen, and then began removing all of his work from his bed. "Shall I take this back to your office or to the mansion?" Mokuba asked.

"The office."

He gathered what Kaiba handed to him and kindly offered to do whatever else he needed, but his brother declined and Mokuba left the room. Shutting the door quietly behind him, he sighed heavily before heading down the hall to knock on the others' doors and see if they were awake yet.

Back in the room, Kaiba finished setting all of his stuff on the side table and turned his laptop on sleep mode. He pulled the sheets up to his shoulders, and bit his tongue at the thought that they weren't a high enough thread count, because he could really feel the difference from his sheets at home. His thoughts strayed to Mokuba, and he winced at the odd look his brother had given him earlier. When he had left his coffee for too long it had grown cold, and Mokuba had offered to make a fresh cup. But as Seto went to hand it to him, the liquid had abruptly started to steam and heat had permeated through the mug and into his hand once more. He had started, before switching topics to divert Mokuba's attention whilst putting the mug back on his nightstand. But Mokuba had already seen it, and although he allowed the change in subject Kaiba knew his mind was whirling with questions.

Had he noticed the strange energy that now surrounded him? Did he feel the icy crackle in the air that was becoming so natural to him? Kaiba hesitated at the word 'magic', but he couldn't hold the thought back any longer. He had a stupid magic energy field surrounding him. He was Seto Kaiba, but he was a now a _magician_, of all things. Like that High Priest.

I am not him, Kaiba thought sternly, I am completely different.

As he drifted into sleep, he held onto the stubborn thought that this was completely reversible, and that he just had to stop doing things like making cold coffee hot again in order for things to go back to normal.

He decided confidently that none of the others needed to know about this. It would only bother them unnecessarily.

xXx

Someone was humming a lullaby, a tune that he remembered his mother and sister used to sing to him. Opening his eyes blearily, he breathed in the clean air deeply and thanked his gods silently for small favours. Odion was looking down at him, his broad face looking so immovable it was almost like it was chiselled into stone. But Marik smirked at him, and Odion's face broke open into a delighted smile in return. "I'm so grateful you returned safely," Odion told him, squeezing his shoulder lightly, taking care to avoid the bruises there.

"No kidding," Marik yawned.

Pushing his chair away from his bed, Odion stood up and walked a few steps to a table to retrieve a tray of food. "Please, eat something. You've haven't eaten since that brief lunch on the plane two days ago."

"What is all of this?" Marik stared at the array of food, which contained everything from fruit to eggs and rice to teas of every imaginable flavour. His stomach rumbled at the sight, and he reached happily for the silver tray, which was placed on a table beside his bed.

Odion sat back down. "Kaiba ordered it, because he says he won't suffer through any of the garbage that the hospital usually offers. He made sure each of you got your own large rooms, as well. It was very generous of him."

Marik dug into the rice and sighed pleasantly. "It feels like this is the first time in weeks since I've been able to relax."

"That's probably true," Odion agreed.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," Marik called, and it opened to reveal Mokuba, who poked his head in with a grin.

"You're awake!"

"How are the others?" Marik got straight to the point. Coming into the room, Mokuba briefly explained what news he could. Kaiba had been awake earlier. Noah was out of the virtual world. Atem had won the Rod in the Shadow Game. The group discussed for a while, and Mokuba enquired about how Marik was feeling. Out in the hall nurses bustled by. The hospital was beginning to awaken as the morning came and went. The tray of food was practically licked clean —Marik had to admit that Kaiba had good taste.

Marik suffered through the nurses and Odion's attentions as they went over his injuries.

Later Odion called Ishizu and filled in what she did not already know about their situation, which was honestly very little. When Odion came back from the phone he found Marik fast asleep in the bed, and he quietly shut the door behind him as he returned to his chair to diligently watch over his brother.

Incoherent mumbles issued from Marik while he slept. His face was creased, and Odion vaguely wondered if he was having a bad dream. What he did not know was that Marik hadn't dreamt since he was ten. Odion thought some of the mumbles may have been part of the summoning speech for Ra.

Even in your sleep you still seek for some way to protect yourself, Odion thought. Will you never be at peace again?

xXx

He had grown too arrogant after three successful robberies in a row. As he dipped in and out of the Realms, entering the light world only to briefly check his location before popping back out again, Bakura pleaded with him to stop. Of course the Ring spirit did not pay him any mind. They had landed just after noon in Luxor, having taken a later flight after Bakura had rested sufficiently. But they had had barely any time to settle into the hotel room before the thief had taken over and had walked off to the excavation site. He had walked in the Shadow Realm nearly the whole way, and it had cut a significant portion of the distance and the time spent to get there. What would have been a few hours drive was less than an hour walking through the Shadows. And he was getting better at it with each jump in. The first time Bakura had seen him use the technique, he had been awed and shocked. Black smoke had gathered in the hotel room, and then the very air itself had ripped open, revealing a thread of the Realm. The Thief King had grabbed it with both hands, and pulled it open wide enough for him to slip through. Bakura had followed meekly, wondering what horrors awaited them beyond.

There were no horrors. There was nothing but darkness, actually. As it had been explained to him, they were traversing the highest level of the Shadow Realm, and the monsters and spirits were further in. When a Shadow Game was called, the players often took themselves several layers deep into the Realm, depending on the specifications of the Game called. But as the thief only needed the Shadows for transportation, he disregarded the lower depths and walked along the highest plane. Bakura had listened attentively and was relieved that this seemingly wouldn't harm them if they were careful.

"You fool," the thief had said, "you assume that the Shadow Realm is only a place of evil. That is untrue."

"I don't understand. I've only ever seen terrible things come from Shadow magic. Are you saying that you can use it for good things, too?"

"It is just a Realm, dear host," he had answered in thinning patience, "a place very ancient, and containing powerful energy and magic, just waiting to be put to use. Because of the things that one can do with the Shadows, many choose to use the Realm for less than honourable purposes. It is why you can find so many evil spirits, demons, and other pitiful creatures inside it. Many were once men, like you or I. Some sought to enter the Realm and claim its unending magic for themselves. But they could not handle it, and so died and were reborn anew as its agents. Or perhaps they incurred the wrath of a sorcerer, and that sorcerer sent them into the Shadows. And there they sat for many years, rotting and twisting their shape as magic flowed through them and altered them. It could not be helped. Only a powerful sorcerer can resist the Shadows and keep his shape. But many often lose their sanity or their soul instead. There are many things waiting to gobble you up in the lower depths, things that have not seen another creature in centuries, things that have lost their intelligence and so resort to instinct. But every so often..."

Bakura had been listening with wide eyes thus far, but at this point he had leaned in rather curiously. It had been strange being fed so much information from the thief, and he had thought that it sounded true, but he couldn't be sure. Still, it had been all so interesting. And the spirit certainly knew a lot about it, seeing as how he had been sent to the Shadows so many times. "Yes, what?"

The thief had been clearly enjoying telling the story, and he had suggested in a lazy tone with some amusement, "Sometimes you can come across a spirit of purity and goodness. But it is rare."

Now as they darted about the machinery, flashing in and out of the light world, Bakura marvelled at how little black smoke the thief was leaving behind as he jumped Realms. "This teleporting thing is working so far, but I really don't think we should be doing this in _the middle of the day_, Spirit!"

Grinning slightly, the thief slid out of the Realm again behind a drilling machine, pausing briefly to catch his breath. "Oh, but where's the fun without a little challenge? The previous robberies won't compare to what's in store for us ahead, Landlord. You'll see. The High Priest's tomb will be exceptional. And I just want one...little...thing..."

Workers milled around, chattering loudly and carrying equipment and supplies necessary for a day of heavy work. They were still removing dirt and rocks around the entrance to Priest Seth's tomb, revealing a large stone walkway with steps and miniature statues, mostly withered away by the weather and time. Excavators dug up ground and dump trucks unloaded dirt at the bottom of the cliff. It was a delicate process attempting to phase in and out of the light world without being seen, but the thief had been doing a good job at estimating their location as they walked through the blackness. Every time they left Bakura's heart had leaped, and he almost squeezed his eyes shut when the tear appeared in the Realm. Sooner or later he assumed that the Ring spirit would tear open a hole in the fabric of the Realm _inside_ an object, which was his worst fear. What if they leapt out and landed in something? Like a boulder? It would be an instantaneous death. After he had suggested this to the thief, however, he had only received a laugh in response. The Ring spirit was enjoying himself too much, and having a miserable tag-along only made him more amused. At an attempt in easing his fears, though, he told his host that he always made sure to look through the tears he made in the darkness before slipping out. It wouldn't do to land in front of someone, after all. How would they explain that? 'Sorry I just appeared out of thin air'?

"But what if someone sees the smoke," Bakura fretted.

A snort. "And what will they think, then? Nothing. It's just smoke. It won't alert anybody."

"It'll alert Ishizu," Bakura said firmly.

The Ring spirit raised both eyebrows and gave him an amused smirk. "It sounds to me like you are concerned about me getting caught by her,"

Bakura was instantly flustered. "That's not true! I want her to know, I just...don't want you to hurt her..."

The Thief King eyed his astral host as he ducked down and surveyed the entrance. The Ishtar they spoke of did not appear to be on site today, but he had not bothered to look around much when he had been skipping the distance required to get to the entrance. "The Seer won't be harmed so long as she stays out of my affairs,"

"But you're in _her_ affairs," Bakura protested.

A spurt of quiet laughter left the Ring spirit's mouth before he motioned to the entrance. Bakura turned his attention to it, wondering what had caught the spirit's attention. "Look, dear host. Do you see the hieroglyphs above the arch? Those are the symbols of Upper and Lower Egypt. This is a Pharaoh's tomb as well as a Priest's tomb. So it is the tomb I wanted after all," he smiled in anticipation, and Bakura shivered without knowing it. Then he tore open another rip, and Bakura followed him once more into the black vertigo.

It always worried him as they moved through the Shadows that one of them would forget which way was up and so send them spiralling down into nothingness. Not wanting to be laughed at again, Bakura kept silent on the issue but was not silent on his other concerns. "Thief, I really can't let you do this. This is just wrong. Seth deserves to be left in peace, you know? You can't take whatever it is you're after."

Not even bothering to glance at him, the Ring spirit said smoothly, "You have two choices, dear host."

Bakura waited.

"You can defy me and fight for control of our body, and then be knocked out cold." The thief stopped for a moment, appearing to consider the space before him before mumbling a count out loud. Counting steps, Bakura realized. So that was how he kept track of where he was in the Light Realm. "Or," continued the thief, after turning slightly and choosing a new direction, "you can be accepting of your position in our...relationship, and not bother with any such foolish endeavours."

Making a motion that looked like he was grabbing the air in front of him, the thief pulled apart the Shadows and looked through the tear.

Blackness echoed beyond.

The Ring spirit turned to look over his shoulder at his host. "Well, Landlord? Are you coming or will you sit this experience out? Do you want another blank in your memories?"

He was not being cruel or malevolent, Bakura realized. He was being logical. Because Bakura was a problem to him, he was choosing to deal with it by calmly presenting him with the facts and letting him make his own decision. The thief would not let him get in the way, but he was not bothered with him sticking around, either. It was a simple situation in his eyes. To Bakura, though, it was about morals and values, and choosing to fight even though he would lose would mean not giving up the beliefs he held dear. But if he decided to just stand by and watch...what would come out of it? What could he possibly gain from it, aside from the knowledge of what exactly Bakura was doing with his body? It was unlikely that he would be able to convince the spirit to alter his chosen path, and he certainly had no way of getting the others to stop him when all he had was his astral form. I don't want to have more dust in my mind room, Bakura thought, but I don't want to just let him think I'm okay with this. I don't want to stand here and let him do horrible things without even trying to stop him. How would I ever forgive myself?

Maybe I can learn what makes you tick by following you around, Bakura wondered, maybe I can figure out who you are underneath your thick skin. And maybe then I'll finally know why we're connected. Besides, who else would know but him and I, about whether or not I had actually fought back...

Ishizu would, he admitted to himself. She can see right through me, when she is not being distracted by something else.

And Atem and Kaiba and Marik, he guessed also. They were far too insightful.

Wringing his hands and fisting them in his hair, he cried out quietly as he fought against himself and tried to decide what to do. But the Ring spirit was not so patient. He dropped back into the light world, and with a snap Bakura's spirit was dragged with him.

They were in a passage. Behind them was a thin rectangle of light, where the sun shone through the first few feet of the opening and gave them a rough estimate of how tall and how wide the hallway was. The Thief King reached into the shoulder bag of Bakura's that he had brought along (he liked it for its small weight and adjustable straps). He brought out a flashlight and started down the hall, and Bakura edged behind him, not noticing when his feet did not actually touch the ground.

"What're the chance of traps being in here? That still work after all this time?" Bakura whispered, feeling more than a little wary in the darkness.

The Thief King flashed the light over the walls and floor as he walked, and answered without thinking. "Judging by the feel of the magic in the air, I would say that it is more than likely. Such a tomb would be protected against the wears of time."

"And what're the chances of you getting caught in one of these traps?" Bakura asked uneasily, anxious at hearing the spirit's statement.

Humming softly for a minute, the thief shot him a grin. "I think what you should be asking is what the chances are of me being unable to free myself of such a trap," he returned.

"Oh." A pause. And then, sighing, "Well?"

"None. I am the best, after all." The thief said confidently, and with an air of pride.

"Of course," Bakura said dryly.

He turned to look at him with the flashlight. "Was that sarcasm, Landlord?"

"No, no." The Ring spirit gazed at his host as he fought to keep his face straight. Even as much as he intimidated him, he still found himself amused by some of the thief's mannerisms. Bakura added hesitantly, "Really."

"Hmpf."


	31. Chapter 31

Chapter 31

His footsteps did not echo against the rough stone, and Bakura stared at his shoes in wonder as he placed them down in a manner which muffled nearly all of the sound. They were descending down the tunnel as it carved further into the cliff, and Bakura could not tell much in his astral form, but he had figured out that they were on a very slight slope some time after the light from the entrance had disappeared. The thief in front of him was in a serious mood, which was a large difference from the mood he had been earlier. His excitement and interest about the tomb had been severely muted, and Bakura took this to mean that they were in a dangerous environment. He did his best not to distract him, but as they went further in he started to get claustrophobic, and even though he did not have his stomach to feel it twist in anxiety or his throat to feel it clench, he still got a bit upset about the tunnel. It was not as bad as being in the Shadow Realm, but not knowing how far the tunnel went bothered him, and knowing that even Ishizu had demanded that the team wait before entering made him uncomfortable about the place.

Bakura tried to imagine what Seth might have been like, but all he could do was pull up his memories of Kaiba and superimpose them over his imaginations of the ancient drawings of the High Priest. The resulting figure, voice, mannerisms, and all, came out a little dramatic. Giving up on that line of thought, and deciding that the silence was getting to him, Bakura decided to question the thief.

"Voice," he said, unintentionally using his old nickname for the spirit without realizing it, "did you know Priest Seth at all?"

The Ring spirit frowned, but made no comment about the name that he had been called. "Use your head, Landlord."

Bakura was silent for a minute, before realizing that the spirit did not intend on speaking any further. "So you don't know what he was like?"

"I tried to kill him," said the thief in exasperation, "I never exactly spent any time on trying to get to know him. Ask me about the way he ran the Pharaoh's armies, or about his dueling tactics, and I will be able to answer accordingly. But that is all. I spoke with him but briefly."

"And even then I guess you guys only traded insults."

"Precisely."

Well, that drained that line of thought. Now he had no way to visualize the man. He still had more questions to ask, however. "How large do you think this tomb will be?"

"Dear host."

"Huh?"

"Be quiet."

After a while of walking they eventually came to a large gap in the tunnel, with a long drop below (or so they thought, they couldn't actually see the bottom). Bakura imagined them swinging across the gap on a rope and hook, but they had neither and at any rate the ceiling was perfectly smooth. The Thief King had the go-to solution, and he ripped open a tear into the Shadow Realm without a second's notice.

The tunnel warped around them, and then there was a strong pulse in the air, like something had exploded in the near vicinity. The thin beam from the flashlight was becoming extinguished, as thick Shadows zapped through the stone on all four sides, and with an electric charge the tear sewed itself shut.

As this was occurring the Ring spirit looked on thoughtfully, but had no outward concern showing on his face. Bakura started to whisper to him, but then shut his mouth as he remembered that the spirit wanted him to be quiet.

He was grateful when the thief decided to explain it to him regardless.

"As I expected, this tomb is guarded with strong magic seals. It will be difficult to use Shadow magic while we're in it. In fact, it would probably be unwise."

Bakura murmured, "It felt like it was denying you further entry into the tunnel. Like it was a warning to go back. All the Shadows zipping through the stone walls like...crackling fireworks...it was really ominous."

White hair shining dimly as the thief smacked the battery case on the flashlight to get it to shine brighter, he answered. "It was a warning certainly, but not to us."

Completely confused now, Bakura asked, "Well, to who, then? To Ishizu, because she's a tomb keeper? And to the rest of the clan?"

Thief King Bakura smirked widely. "No, no, Landlord. It's a warning to Seto Kaiba."

xXx

Something was shocking through his system, something like burning ice, liquid in its fluidity but sharp in its presence. Shouting out loud, Kaiba awoke from a deep sleep with sweat dripping down his face. Mokuba looked up with alarm from his chair, and came to his side immediately. Panting as though he had just gone for a jog, Kaiba tried to stop the swell of magic in his system. Something cold was crossing over his ribcage, and he shivered as every muscle tensed and his heart pumped adrenaline through his body.

"Seto, what's wrong? Are you okay? Should I call a doctor?" Mokuba worried, one hand patting his brother's back awkwardly.

"No, no, I'm fine. Nothing's wrong," Kaiba snapped, feeling completely disoriented. For a moment he had not known where he was, and it was taking him a while to remember that he was in a hospital due to events that were only just now racing through his mind. Something was bothering him, though, something that he couldn't quite place, like he was forgetting something that he should be remembering. Kaiba struggled to remember what it was, what was bothering him.

Mokuba sat on the edge of his bed. "Are you sure? It was just a nightmare, then, was it? Was it...the one that you used to have all the time..."

"No," Kaiba cut him off quickly. Glass breaking. A red suit and a smirk. Distressed voices. He pushed the images away before they could distract him. "It wasn't. It's just..."

"Just?" Mokuba prompted.

Kaiba regretted speaking, but he did his best to answer his brother anyway. "Have you ever heard the expression 'feeling like someone just walked over your grave?'"

"No..." Mokuba looked more than a little confused.

Rubbing his temples, he muttered, "Because I think that's what I'm feeling. Like someone's walking over my grave."

xXx

Okay, there was a definite pattern. As the two pillars dropped down, another turned in a circle and slid along that track in the floor over the space where the pillars had once been. It slid to the opposite side of the room before sliding back again. The two stone rods in the wall on the right snapped out at regular three second intervals, and it would be tricky to manoeuvre around them. Bakura was nearly having a heart attack, but the thief appeared to consider the room rather calmly before making a decision.

Bakura bit his tongue to keep from being a distraction, but the thief would not have noticed anyway. He was too focussed on the pillars.

The pillars dropped down, providing a clear path to the tunnel on the other side of the room. Bolting across the floor, the Ring spirit was followed closely behind by the left pillar which spun as it slid along the stone track, blocking them off from going back. But the Thief King stopped at the middle of the room, even as he was pushed along the floor by the spinning pillar at his back.

Slam. The rods in the wall jerked forward and entrapped the thief and the middle pillar between them. The Ring spirit lost valuable inches as the spinning pillar pushed him towards the far rod, which was too smooth to climb over and too wide to slip under. "We're going to be crushed to death," Bakura moaned miserably.

Slam. The rods jerked backward, and then the thief was free to bolt towards the other side again. Just as he crossed over to the other side, beyond the length of the spinning pillar's track, the two pillars in the floor sprang up again, slamming into the ceiling with a resounding bang.

"The first task is always the easiest," said the thief.

"You're going to kill us," cried Bakura.

They continued forward to the next room. Bakura was relieved that there seemed to be no moving objects in this room, but was a little disturbed at how rough the walls and floor were. Thus far the craftsmanship of the tomb had been exceptional, but now it looked distinctly worn away by time. Bakura huffed from the false safety of the entrance to the room while the thief wandered closer to where the floor tiles began to look chipped and cracked. He flashed the light of the flashlight over the floor and then examined the walls.

From the way the spirit's breathing had settled so easily, Bakura gathered that he was either putting up a front or was already so concentrated on this room that he'd forgotten that he'd just run a while ago. After a minute of thought the thief unzipped his bag and went through it, looking for something. Bakura shifted on his astral feet by force of habit and awaited his past incarnation's next move. Finally the spirit took a spare battery and threw it into the middle of the room. Watching with curiosity, Bakura flinched as the small object tapped the ground and bounced, before hitting another broken tile and rolling to a stop.

The floor fell apart as the tile was sucked into a pit of quick sand.

Before Bakura had time to draw his next breath and blink, the battery, along with the tiles around it, disappeared. The sand dust cleared a second later. "So fast..." he whispered.

"Don't interrupt me, Landlord." The Ring spirit snapped without looking at him. Bakura got the point, and shut up instantly.

Pulling back, the Ring spirit put his back against the wall and Bakura eyed him nervously. There was a moment where he drew a breath, and then Bakura's mouth dropped open. He isn't actually just going to make a run for it, is he? Bakura thought in disbelief.

Oh, but he was.

He ran. Hard. Sand ate up the tiles where he landed, but the spirit had taken a good look of the room and knew where the strongest tiles rested. Leaping with lightning speed, resembling a grasshopper from a dream, the thief skidded off of the walls and landed on his hip, rolling into the far wall. Dust covered the air, but Bakura couldn't see that: the flashlight was giving off yellow light on the far side of the room and he was situated in darkness.

Floating over to the spirit's side, Bakura winced at the sand that he was shaking out of his hair. Not to mention the bruises that he'd probably obtained during that little roll.

I'm going to be a mess when he finally gives me my body back, Bakura thought tiredly.

xXx

He had gotten uncomfortable in the hospital shift that the staff had given him to wear, so Yuugi had gone home and retrieved several different outfits for him. As Pharaoh, he was probably used to wearing a lot of jewellery and layers, and so to be so bereft of all of that had put him completely out of his element. So Yuugi had also grabbed what bangles he could, and in no time Atem was in a better mood. They were walking down the hall to give him a stretch, talking about whatever random nonsense Yuugi could think of. Movies. Video games. There were so many things that he had never had the chance to introduce Atem to, and now he did. They could go home and go through his closet and pull out every board game Yuugi owned. They could go down to the arcade and challenge all of Mokuba's records and see how many they could beat in an hour.

As much as he wanted to suggest these things to his friend, he knew it was impossible. There was too much to worry about for them to be spending their time like that. Bakura was still missing. And Dark Marik was still out there. He was depriving his host of his life-long dream, his family, his career, and all of his coworkers. Yuugi could not think of anything worse. And Bakura...the thief was pulling their friend away from them was again. Doing who knows what. He still remembered the crumpled note that had been left beside the Puzzle. Everyone else thought it was a cruel joke on the part of the thief, but Yuugi wasn't so certain. His mind drew back to when he had exited the Afterlife, and he could see the look on Bakura's face. He had thought he recognized the emotions, but at the time he couldn't quite place them. Now he thought he knew. It was misery. And regret. Reluctance. They were the same emotions that had been playing through his mind at the time. The need to stay and figure out where Atem was. The regret of bringing him into their battle. And the feeling of knowing he'd just dragged him out of eternal peace. Bakura had been feeling those emotions too, albeit for different reasons. Because the thief had come back out of the Afterlife, and he knew it, but he couldn't say anything. He probably thought that he'd lost all of his friends all over again. Just like every other time that the thief had intertwined their lives. Now he felt he knew a little more about what had occurred when Bakura was in the Afterlife. It was probably more than just him wandering the desert and the thief hitching a ride in his body to get out. Bakura had known the thief had come with him out of the world of the dead. And he'd been hurting for it.

Yuugi turned his thoughts back to his other half. Atem had asked a lot of questions of the nurses who had stopped the machine from pouring the drugs in through his veins. He had wanted to absorb as much information as possible, and was a bit wary of all the technology that he had no knowledge of or faith in. But as soon as Yuugi had told him that he thought it was good for him, the questions had stopped. The medicine of this millennium may not have made much sense to Atem, but he trusted Yuugi's opinions and allowed the nurses the check his breathing and pulse though he thought it was nonsense. Now as they strolled down the halls, avoiding staff and stretchers, Atem clasped his hands to keep himself from pulling at the plug still sticking out of his arm (in case he needed more drugs later). Yuugi talked to distract him from it.

"Let's go down this hall. There's all these windows that look out over this garden area," he told Atem.

They turned, and continued discussing games. Down the hall a ways, two women were talking to a person behind the reception desk. Yuugi stopped, recognizing them instantly. But Atem kept walking, his thoughts on the battles that they would have to face ahead, and was completely unaware that Yuugi was no longer walking beside him. The women turned to walk down the hall, and Yuugi made an unintelligible noise before waving his arm. "Téa, Serenity!" He called them over.

Atem stopped, startled out of his reverie, and he turned back to where Yuugi was, several feet behind him. He followed Yuugi's eyes, where down the hall the women gave a wave back and came towards him. Hesitating, he made no move to draw attention to himself out of uncertainty for how they would react.

Coming right up to Yuugi, Téa wrapped her arms around him and gave him an emotional hello. "I'm so glad to see that you're better Yuugi," she told him softly, and hastily pulled away to wipe her eyes before the tears could fall. He smiled in turn. "You have no idea how much Serenity and I have worried about you guys," she told him. Serenity came forward next, and shyly gave Yuugi a quick hug.

"It's good to see you, Yuugi. But where...?" Serenity faltered.

"Ah," Yuugi looked behind him and made a motion with his hands, "Joey is down that hallway and then one turn right. Kaiba's and Marik's rooms are down the same way. Tristan is still in Joey's room playing cards. Mokuba is with Kaiba. And Odion is watching over Marik." He looked up at them, and then saw Atem standing ramrod straight behind them. Their eyes met and Yuugi motioned him over.

Turning, Téa and Serenity stared without seeing as Atem joined Yuugi's side. Then, stammering, Téa said, "But...you..."

"Good afternoon, Téa. And to you, Serenity. It has been too long. How was the trip?" Atem tried to be gentle, but Yuugi just bit his lip.

His partner didn't seem to be able to hold back. "I don't think that's exactly the best thing to say in this situation, Atem." He suggested.

Atem frowned. "What was I supposed to have said? Something along the lines of an apology for not letting them know that I was back earlier?" He appeared genuinely confused.

"Atem?" Téa and Serenity said together, completely and utterly taken aback.

He didn't know what to say anymore, and it was a new experience for him to feel at a loss for words. Offering a small smile, he lost his train of thought and the two women wrapped their arms around him. "I never really got to meet you, did I?" Said Serenity. Atem shook his head, and his smile grew a bit larger. "Thank you for all of those times that you helped out my big brother," she told him delightedly, and stepped back.

Téa was a bit more expressive, and she fought the tears that had appeared earlier as she pulled away from him. "Hi, Atem."

"Hi, Téa." The Pharaoh replied warmly.

Yuugi cleared his throat and offered to show Serenity where her brother was. Looking at him in confusion, he was left feeling distinctly out of the loop as his partner and Serenity left him. Their voices carried somewhat down the hall as Yuugi cheerfully told Serenity that Joey could fill her in about everything that had happened so far.

Atem turned back to Téa, and she looked considerably more composed than before. "I...assume you have a lot of questions," Atem said uncertainly.

"Well, yes!" Téa couldn't help the short laugh that left her throat. Giving him a slightly exasperated look, she went on, "But I guess that it can all wait. I want to hear about everything that happened, but...I guess the only thing that springs to mind now is...I mean...how long...?"

Motioning down the hallway, Atem recommended, "How about we go back to the others so that you can get the full account of what happened?"

Opening her mouth as if to object, she abruptly shook her head and then agreed.

xXx

Television cameras were rolled into place as he sat back into his high-backed chair to have the stylist fix his hair. Siegfried von Schroeder was about to have an interview that was to be aired live on television. He was excited about the opportunities that were going to come his way from the footage. Soon everyone would know about his plans, and he would be on his way to the top of the dueling world, with his name being almost as well known as Seto Kaiba's. And maybe even Pegasus'. Maybe. In the interview room excess chairs were pushed out of the way and large lights were set up in every corner to make sure that there were no unwanted shadows in the frame. The woman who was about to interview him was a bit on the inexperienced side, though. He watched her fix the lapel on her jacket and titter anxiously about the noise of the cars down on the streets, far below the office building. Of course that noise would be filtered out, but she complained about it nonetheless. Her bouncy blonde curls were most definitely dyed, because they didn't match the colour of her eyebrows, and Siegfried stared at her in annoyance. So long as everything went smoothly he could care less about her appearance, though. He sighed and waved the stylist away and took a drink from a crystal flute.

From the hall his brother entered the room, and offered him a few words of encouragement. "Our ideas will be completely different from the usual norm in the dueling arenas, so I'm absolutely sure that this'll attract curious and interested duelists from around the world. You don't have to worry about a thing." Leon told him, in that simple tone his brother always used, like the world was built in blacks and whites. Like everything he did was wonderful because he was his brother.

Siegfried scowled. "My holographic technology was completely original and different too, but Seto Kaiba still managed to come up with the same idea." He handed his brother the now empty flute. Leon moved to object with something nonsensical, but Siegfried cut him off in a dull voice. "And not just the same idea. The same concept, certainly, but his...oh, his was..." Leon was smiling sadly.

"Better." His brother finished for him.

Dropping his head into his hand, his scowl deepened. "Yes. If that must be your descriptor."

"But Seto Kaiba doesn't have what you have, does he?" Leon reminded him.

He smiled, and reached into his jacket pocket to pull out the cards that had been on his mind for a while now. Each green spell card resonated through the card protectors, and Siegfried wondered what could be causing it. Micro technology. Super tiny. Or something. The man who had given him the cards had certainly been rich. He could have afforded it. "That's true, Leon," he replied thoughtfully.

The cards were very rare and very unique. Very few had been made. Possibly less than a dozen. And he had copies of them. The thought still made him smile.

"We're on in five minutes Mr. von Schroeder," said one of the camera crew. Siegfried nodded and gave his brother a look. Taking the hint he wandered off to sit in the hall where he wouldn't be a distraction for his older brother. In his mind he sulked, thinking that Seto had let his younger brother be on television with him lots of times. Siegfried was not as willing to share the limelight.

The room got even busier as lights and sound were checked and last minute problems were taken care of. Siegfried stayed put and the woman who would interview him sat next to him in another chair and a microphone was prepared for them both.

Finally they were on. Lights flashed and the room went quiet. It was a bit eerie, Siegfried decided. But he was not nervous.

"Hello, this is Ai Shimizu reporting for Channel 11 News. I'm here with Siegfried von Schroeder who has an announcement that may excite all you duelists and dueling fans alike out there. Go ahead, please."

Siegfried took a breath. "I've decided to host a tournament..."

xXx

The group of them, including Marik, Kaiba, and Joey, were convening in Atem's room where they had been discussing everything that had happened so far to bring Serenity and Téa up to speed, as well as to fill in the details that some of the others may not have seen. Both women were now rather quiet as they tried to absorb everything that they had been told in shock. So many injured. Such harsh battles.

It had been difficult to explain it all, but they had finally informed them of every horrible thing, and then some. The fact that Yuugi had nearly died had not gone over well with them at all. Noah's rescue was an adventure and a half. Marik's fall which had broken quite a few bones. Téa winced with each description, and Tristan had eventually got the idea to clamp one hand over Joey's mouth so that the ones with more tact could explain everything to them. Leaving out the parts with the blood, the fire, the sink holes, the other near-falls and the frost bite left the women feeling sufficiently eased about the situation. Serenity relaxed at the idea that her brother had not been in nearly as much danger as she had suspected, but Téa was better at reading her friends and knew that some parts of their adventures had been left out. She wasn't sure if she was grateful or annoyed with this.

Having to tell them that the thief was possessing Bakura once more left them feeling a little guilty. Téa was uneasy about it, but Serenity did not know enough about it to be bothered.

Atem had worked up the confidence to tell them that Dark Marik was not yet gone, just stuck in his host body and without a Millennium Item.

Somehow no one was surprised.

From there the mood went from tired to downright depressing. The television in the corner was turned on, and in a moment of contemplative silence for their enemy, their attention was caught by who was on the screen. "Hey," Joey said, Tristan's hand having since been removed from his mouth, "turn it up. It's Siegfried." Mokuba complied to his request and used the remote to turn up the volume.

The manipulative duelist and businessman on screen was in the middle of announcing a tournament. "Aside from the tag team duels and the block formation set up for the competitors, what makes this tournament different from all the others is what is going to be the prize. I'm offering a set of very unique and powerful cards to the winner, that which, although they may not be used in any tournament, are a major collector's item that should spike anyone's interest."

All of them were quiet as Siegfried held up three cards, and the camera zoomed in on the photos. Spell cards, all of them. An intricately designed circle was the main focus of the pictures, unlike any design that was usually featured on duel cards. But that was because they hadn't been drawn by Pegasus or by his corporation. In fact, the pattern was not taken from ancient Egypt, but rather Atlantian in origin...

"These three cards are Orichalcos cards, and they are a set of which less than a dozen exist in the world. The Seal of Orichalcos, Orichalcos Deuteros, and Orichalcos Tritos will all be handed to the victor."

Kaiba was reaching for his cell phone, but Mokuba beat him to it and handed him the device. Tristan turned off the television. He turned to the rest of the group with a tentative, "You think...that those are real?"

"Only one way to find out," Kaiba said coldly as he dialled Siegfried's number.

The day could not get any worse.

xXx

The interview was over, and Leon made reassuring comments as he and his brother strode down the hall. Abruptly, Siegfried's cell phone rang, and he slid it out of his pocket. Snapping the lid open, he scowled for a moment at the caller ID but then broke out into a smile. "Who is it?" Leon said curiously. Was someone interested in their tournament already?

Siegfried ignored his brother's question and answered the phone. "Hello."

"This is Seto Kaiba calling about the interview that was just shown on the news," came a dull voice through the speakers. He thought he heard an underlying tone of annoyance, but couldn't be sure.

"Obviously," he answered childishly.

There was a pause. "I would like you to know that I'm interested in purchasing the set of cards from you before the tournament. Perhaps we could schedule an appointment and meet to discuss it."

He snapped in annoyance, "Not a chance. I know the worth of these cards. I'm not about to let them slip through my fingers. They're going to lure in competitors to my tournament."

"Listen, Siegfried—" his voice cut out and for a minute the sound was muffled, but he could tell that he was having a conversation on the other end. Waiting patiently, Siegfried checked his watch as Kaiba's voice came back on the line. "Perhaps we can consider another deal. If you agree to give me a chance to buy the cards, then Yuugi is willing to sign up for your tournament. And you and I both know that that will bring better publicity than that little known set of rare cards that you have."

Seto drove a good bargain, Siegfried had to admit. He knew that the two were friends, and if Seto said that Yuugi would join then Siegfried had no doubt that he would. Plus, it would mean a lot...having the one and only King of Games supporting his tournament. Everyone knew his name. More people knew his name than any other famous person associated with Duel Monsters. He couldn't let this chance pass him by. At any rate, he could always charge a steep price for the set. He knew enough about what they were worth, and although he wouldn't be much richer with them out of his hands since he was rich enough already, maybe the brief business with Seto would encourage more business in the future. Siegfried liked the idea. "All right. Whenever you're free, then."

They planned a time to meet and Siegfried hung up. Leon tugged on his sleeve and he looked over. "What's going on?"

Grinning lightly, he replied, "I've just made a deal with Seto Kaiba that will increase the popularity of this tournament, that's what. Things are going better than I had hoped, Leon."

Leon said happily, "That's fantastic."

The two of them exchanged smiles as they went down the hall. Business had been slow for their company for a while. Soon it was about to pick up.


	32. Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Deep in the complex rooms of Priest Seth's tomb, Thief King Bakura and his host ran down a passageway and narrowly avoided poison-tipped spikes being lobbed out of the walls. Well, the thief avoided the spikes, and his astral host just floated at his side, wincing at every time it looked like his body was about to get hit. The flashlight's beam of yellow light was definitely not adequate enough for the heavy darkness of the tunnel, and the thief frequently passed it up and down over the walls in order to be sure that there was a passage up ahead, or if he had misjudged the distance. Bakura in his astral form was still panicking over everything, and even witnessing his possessor dodge certain death did not make him feel more at ease over the situation. He kept feeling like this might be his last day on Earth, and he wasn't even spending it inside his own body. The Ring spirit ignored him almost completely and focussed on exploring the tomb.

So far they had not come across a whole lot. There were numerous tunnels that led to nowhere, and rooms that just held traps. There were inscriptions carved and painted on every wall, however; beautiful paintings and stories holding every moment of this Pharaoh's life, and all the history surrounding him and his country. Further behind them there had been a rather large statue of the God Set, imposing by himself but when surrounded by nothing it had only made his figure look larger. Here Bakura had got a glimpse of the thief's past life, as he had backed out of the room down a randomly picked hallway, not willing to lift his eyes nor turn to walk out. He had made no comment about it, but it had definitely intrigued him.

If they were searching for where Seth's possessions were kept, Bakura was not sure that they would ever find it. Since magic guarded the tomb and its secrets, including Seth's body, it was likely that the place was entirely hidden from their sight. Unless their intentions were pure, he supposed. For Seth's good. Was that how it worked?

"Hey, Spirit," Bakura broke into the thief's internal dialogue like a knife, and he turned sharply from his inspection of the inscriptions on the wall.

"What is it,"

"Can we go back to that dead end with the Eye of Wdjat and the big painting of Seth attacking you with the Blue-Eyes? I want to try something." Bakura widened his eyes sufficiently and tried to look meek. The spirit did not like to feel like his plans were being threatened.

Sighing roughly, the spirit sucked in another breath and then turned back the way he had come. "Let me make this very clear to you, Landlord," the thief began in an instructional tone. Bakura listened patiently. "I will not allow you to interfere with my plans. But as it just so happens I believe we have gone in a circle anyway. We will be going backwards, and if it so pleases you, you may look at the pictures while we walk." His tone had dropped into one used for small children, but Bakura was not irritated by it. He could sense that the spirit was bothered by not finding anything so far, and was just playing along with him because he had run out of ideas.

They passed the dead end on the left, but Bakura wandered away from the spirit's side to explore further. It was a hallway only a couple of feet long, and had seemed like a pointless creation the first time that they had passed it. Most dead ends that were in the tomb ran on for quite a while, sporting several traps, and they had to waste a lot of time before they realized that there was nothing beyond. But this hall ended before it had even began, and was less of a trick and more of a poor excuse to add more wall space for paintings. But Bakura thought that there was something else strange about it. They had seen the Eye depicted many times throughout the tomb, but this was the only time that it occupied the wall alone and with so little embellishment. Just thick black strokes. The picture of Seth was on the wall adjacent to it, and on the opposite side stood the thief in his crimson cloak. And that was it. No hieroglyphs. Just art.

The thief made to walk on, but stopped in exasperation as Bakura ran his astral hand over the stone. His arm passed straight through, and then he had a thought. Taking a shaky breath (he had never used his body to pass through things before, as he always tried to act normally in his astral body), he slid through the stone completely.

Shadows wavered over the paint, distorting the image of the Eye. For a moment magic slid through the air, but abruptly fell out into nothingness.

Bakura opened his eyes. He was looking into a great space filled to the brim with darkness, except for this flickering fire —a torch, maybe— hanging on what might be a wall. "Hey," he called out to the thief, "there's a room on the other side."

It was more of a hallway, maybe about the size of his bedroom. Nothing was in it save for the fire, so far as he could tell, but there was a great archway into a space beyond.

"How can you tell if it's a room or not," grumbled the thief from the other side, "it's bloody dark without the flashlight and you have no true senses in your astral form."

"Well," Bakura answered cautiously, "there's a light."

"What—"

Bakura was distracted when a rather large figure came forward. Staggering backward, his back sunk slightly into the wall as he stared in increasing worry at the creature. Battle Ox's armour clanked as it closed the distance between them, its large eyes blinking slowly. He was uncertain as to whether it looked angry with him, as its animal features made it difficult for him to tell its expression. Still, it was definitely imposing, even when the double-headed axe it usually carried was slung over its back. Battle Ox huffed out rank air and Bakura unknowingly made a swallowing gesture. "Uh...hullo..." he whispered to the creature.

"Garrugh," said Battle Ox.

Fantastic, thought Bakura. Of course it can't speak. "I'm not here to cause any problems," he said haltingly, "I was just wondering if I could borrow something. I'll be sure to give it back, I promise."

The long tongue of the Ox slid carefully over its molars. Bakura held up both hands in the universal 'peace' gesture. He didn't know whether the Ox could harm him in his astral shape, but if it was indeed a guardian creature, then it probably had been endowed with more power than usual. Maybe it could track him and come after him, even if he did fade back through the wall. His nervousness increased. I'm going to be eaten by it, Bakura thought, and then Voice will have my body all to himself and so won't have to argue with me anymore. And then he thought: when did I get so cynical?

"I'm a friend of Kaiba's," he rambled, "well, not really, I'm more of a friend of Yuugi's. But that should mean more, because he's the Pharaoh's best friend. Which makes me the friend of the best friend of the Pharaoh—"

Battle Ox tramped to his side and blew out over his face, and Bakura was thinking: this is a very tall monster. It's like seven feet tall. It has to bend over to look me in the eyes. Its mouth is bigger than my face. Huffing again, the Ox backed off and gave him a stern look. At least it might have been stern.

There was a moment between them where both were perfectly still, and then the Ox crossed its bulging arms over its steel chest plate. Bakura started.

"Um, Spirit, what is this thing that you wanted..." he stammered out.

An irritated noise grumbled through the stone. "What, are you going to bring it back out for me in your astral form?" Mocked the thief.

"No...but Battle Ox might..."

Silence.

"If you're polite," Bakura added.

xXx

He had rented a car by order of the ghost, who was still resting in the back of his head for unknown reasons. It was possible that he had had a run-in with that Yuugi, since he was sure that that was who the ghost had been after earlier. But many days had passed since he had last been in control, and he was unaware of how much the situation had changed. It had probably changed by a lot because the sceptre was gone, and the ghost was no longer interested in those machines that had taken a lot of effort to build. He was still shocked that the Rod was gone. A tiny hope existed in him that the ghost would not have nearly as much power as he had had before. Still, he could never be too careful. He was still incredibly intimidating, and Dr. Yoshida was not about to upset him.

Earlier, as he was packing up in his hotel room, he had seen a newscast with a tournament being announced and the ghost had been quite interested. He had been in one tournament before, the ghost had told him. And he had wanted to know about this one. Dr. Yoshida had done his best to research and the ghost had zeroed in on the tentative prize for the winner. The set of cards had a lot of history behind them, although; he was not sure what was real and what was fiction. For one thing, there was a lot of footage about monsters occupying streets all over the world and a monstrous creature appearing in the skies everywhere around the time that the cards were being used in duels. For another thing, there was a lot of regulations against using the cards in tournament duels and in Kaiba Land. Dr. Yoshida thought that that was strange but could find no reason for it. Then again, there was a long list of cards banned from tournaments and that was just because they were too powerful. He could not really tell if a card was powerful or not, but he assumed that this was the case with the spell cards. _Orichalcos _cards. Another strange thing had cropped up in his research. The cards had not actually been made by Industrial Illusions. This didn't make any sense.

The ghost wanted the three cards badly, as he believed them to hold an ancient magic. He had claimed that it would fortify his strength and give him a crucial opportunity that he needed, and this worried Dr. Yoshida immensely. If the Orichalcos cards were anything like the Rod then they would have untold abilities that would allow the ghost to harm innocent people.

As he drove to the new hotel that the ghost had picked in his nondescript car, Dr. Yoshida prayed that someone would stop the madman in his head. Before he put the poor businessman who owned the cards in the hospital.

xXx

After Kaiba had told them what he and Siegfried had decided, the doctors had come in and had argued for Kaiba to stay in the hospital longer. Everyone else had wandered back to their rooms and the other injured tried to subtly (or not-so-subtly in Joey's case) convince their friends that they should leave too. The suggestions and pleading were cut off instantly. Yuugi got them all to play a few rounds of cards in Atem's room while Kaiba got some rest so that he could leave the hospital the next afternoon.

Exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed with the problems that everyone was facing, they went to sleep after more of Kaiba's ordered-in food.

The next day dawned heavy with clouds, warning of rain but never actually getting around to much more than drizzling for a few minutes before breakfast.

Yuugi left Atem's room for an hour to help his grandfather with the Game Shop, and later Téa and Serenity showed up with get well cards for everybody. Kaiba was not impressed with the women's generosity, and appeared a bit amused at their rough drawings of flowers inside the cards, along with the flowing script. Serenity waited with a smile for Kaiba's reaction, and Mokuba sat warily as his gaze switched between the stern scowl of Téa's and Kaiba's blank poker face. Téa was clearly shooting Kaiba a warning look, with her hands on her hips as she told him silently that he had better not insult Serenity's efforts to cheer him up.

"I appreciate it," Kaiba tried for some semblance of a smile, and both women smiled back at him, "though it was unnecessary." Mokuba groaned quietly at the last sentence.

Téa shot back, "If it's about trying to show your feelings, Kaiba, it's never unnecessary,"

"Hmpf."

Mokuba gave them a friendly wave as they left the room, in a way apologizing for his brother's comment. They walked down the hall slowly, aiming for the coffee machine down by the entrance where they could get an energy boost. Téa slid coins into the slot and put a cup under the spout as Serenity sat in a nearby chair. "I feel like there are so many things that everyone is still keeping from me," Serenity confessed, "like I'm not old enough to handle hearing about all of the dangers that my brother and everyone else are going through."

Pursing her lips together, Téa watched the cappuccino pour down and replied awkwardly, "You don't have to feel left out. They're hiding things from the both of us,"

"Yes, but, at least they don't treat you like a little kid, Téa. Just because I'm a few years younger than the rest of you, everyone thinks that they need to act differently around me."

Maybe she isn't as naïve as I thought, Téa admitted to herself. "You know everyone is just trying to protect you, Serenity. It has nothing to do with what they think you can or cannot handle. It's more of the older brother mentality that everyone has taken towards you. And me. Keeping out the details like blood so that we don't have to worry about them as much."

Thoughtfully, Serenity accepted the cup that Téa handed her and sipped. She made a face at the taste. "I know," Téa agreed, "the machine stuff is never as good as the café kind. But it'll warm you up at least. I'm still cold from walking through the stiff breeze outside."

Sliding more coins into the slot, Téa made another selection as Serenity said, "But don't they know that keeping us in the dark is only going to make us worry more?" Such innocent eyes looked up at Téa to provide an answer, and she did the best that she could.

"People don't think about that when they're keeping something from you. They just remember what it feels like to be so concerned for someone else's wellbeing that it begins to eat away at you. That's when they try to ease the pain for us, by pretending that things are better than they actually are. Because sometimes that's better than knowing what's out there, you know? We both understand that we can't do anything about it anyway, other than just being there for them. And they know it better than us, because they were there to experience the battle. So you can't blame them for acting like they've been, Serenity. Not when they care about you so much."

Serenity looked rather chastened. "I'd never thought about it like that."

Changing the subject to ease Serenity's embarrassment, Téa asked, "Are you going to sit by your brother so that Tristan can have a stretch? Somebody needs to be there to make sure that he doesn't sneak out," she joked, "it doesn't look like he likes hospitals very much."

Hesitantly smiling in response, Serenity responded, "No. Not since I started to lose my eyesight and we had to make all of those hospital visits. Along with the surgery to get it back."

"Ah, sorry, that wasn't very good of me to forget. Of course he wouldn't," Téa smacked her forehead with her palm.

"It's okay. I'll go see him, then," Serenity rose from her seat, "thanks Téa. For the drink and the conversation," she added.

Téa hummed in response as Serenity walked away. As she disappeared from view Téa turned back to her hot drink and tasted it warily. Her nose crinkled as she sighed. Definitely not the greatest. Her thoughts switched to how she could spend her day and she walked back down the hall to her friends' rooms, stopping at Atem's door on an impulse. He was sitting on the bed, leaning back into the pillows as he focussed on a handheld game that Yuugi had given him. Judging by the music, Téa guessed that it was one of those robot battle types, where you controlled your own powerful laser-equipped machine to take down the enemy's forces. She knocked lightly on the open door and Atem glanced up. "Of course you may come in, Téa," his eyes returned to the screen without a blink.

Swallowing more of her sugar and caffeine mix she walked over to the bed and sat down. "Yuugi gave you such a large pile of games, Atem, that I don't think you'll ever finish them all." Her hands shifted through the games in a box between them.

"Hmm," said Atem.

She got the impression that he wasn't really paying attention, and took a moment to study his face. A perfectly blank expression with only a hint of determination and victory in his smirk. He had the same game face on like he did when he played in duels, and she was surprised that he took this game as seriously as Duel Monsters. Maybe he took all games this seriously. "I wanted to tell you something that's been bugging me since you got back." She began, liking the fact that he was slightly distracted. Maybe it would give her the boost of confidence to say what she wanted to right. "I don't know if you remember this, but when we were younger..." here she paused again, and then rethought her statement with a wince. Trying to work it out in her head as she spoke, she continued, "Well, I mean, it was when I was younger. You haven't really aged...even though...well, your soul may have aged but your body is still the same," Téa cut herself off before she could embarrass herself.

It surprised her to know that Atem had been listening fully. "I understand what you mean, Téa. In a way, just as you have said, I too was younger. But it was not my body that was younger, it was my soul." He certainly has good multitasking skills, she thought.

Shifting in her seat, she continued before her nervousness could catch up to her. "There was this time when we went to an amusement park...and a criminal just happened to be there at the same time. The staff were instructing everyone to evacuate so that the police could deal with it, but I ran back towards the Ferris Wheel and got on..." Téa tapped the side of her paper cup nervously as she glanced at Atem again. Haltingly, she asked, "Do you remember that?"

Atem actually paused the game as he looked up at her. "Yes."

Pressing her tongue against the roof of her mouth, Téa swallowed self-consciously before continuing. "It was really childish of me to do that. I know it didn't make any sense. The truth is..." Atem just tilted his head. She could not even begin to guess what he was thinking. Maybe he already knew. "The truth is that I wanted to put myself in danger."

The startled expression was rare to see on his face. "I remember you rushing away, but I never wondered what your reasons were for it."

"It was because of you, Atem."

A frown. "What?"

"You saved me before in that fast food joint where I had my first job, remember? Back then, I was so amazed and overjoyed that you were there that I...what I'm trying to say is that I used to have a crush on you. When you came to my rescue numerous times I started to get attached to the image that I had in my head. The image of the hero who would be there when I was in trouble. But I never got to truly meet you, so I put myself in danger once more, just for the chance to know who you were. It was selfish and inconsiderate. And I'm sorry. For the actions, I mean. Not for the intentions behind them."

Téa kept her eyes on the trees outside the window as she awaited his reaction. As he started to speak, though, she turned her head towards him to meet his thoughtful gaze. Not uncomfortable. Or amused. Or irritated. Or exasperated. Those had been the feelings that she had not wanted to see, and she was glad that they were not showing on his face. He just appeared...thoughtful. "And now, Téa?"

Breathing in, she sorted out the tangled mess of emotions in her head. "I was really confused back then as to what I felt, once I found out that you and Yuugi shared a body. I feel like I might have been treating you both the same way, even though I was only interested in you and not Yuugi. And I feel guilty for it. But I've let those feelings go now. When I think back on it I realize it was just a teenage crush. Now I just consider you a friend. The both of you. I'm just hoping my past actions haven't changed anything..."

"Of course not," he cut in reassuringly, and went on, "to be honest...I was more aware of Yuugi's interest in you rather than your interest in me. It had never even occurred to me that I could catch someone's attention like that. There were so many other things to focus on...dangers to face, and memories to try and reclaim. I was not exactly...putting a lot of effort into maintaining a social life."

Laughing sheepishly, Téa replied, "I don't blame you." Atem smiled softly in return. Swallowing another gulp of her drink, which had cooled somewhat, she added, "Sorry if that just seems sort of random. I just had to get it off of my chest."

"I understand." Atem's expression was warm and welcoming, so at long last Téa relaxed. She pushed her bangs out of her face and started to leave.

Shooting him a grin over her shoulder, she said, "If you're trying to see how many of Yuugi's games you can beat before he returns, you might want to consider slowing down."

"Why is that?" He responded in amusement. That had indeed been his thought.

As she left she told him, "Because he only collects the challenging ones, Atem." He watched her back disappear around the corner.

Atem looked down at the start screen and watched his robot's ammunition bar flash in red. It was true, he was finding it relatively difficult to play through. But then, he had never played games like this before and so the experience was new to him. For a minute he sat there thoughtfully as he replayed their conversation, and then he realized why Yuugi had gotten out of their way the day before. He had expected her to say something like this. So their relationship was indeed just as friends, then. Atem remembered how he used to tease Yuugi about her and made a mental note not to do so again.

A few more minutes passed as he got through another quadrant in the game's playing field. He was distracted by voices coming from out in the hallway, however, and then Mokuba ran in and said, "We've got a problem."


	33. Chapter 33

Chapter 33

It had taken him a while, but he had finally chosen a good spot for his ritual. It was dark, and quiet, and there was a good amount of space. The place that he had chosen was a warehouse, and a rundown one in particular that looked like it would not be the centre of any activity anytime soon. Quite possibly no one had visited it for years. At least, he would have thought that, had he not found two long pod-like machines on the floor and a mess of computers wired and fully functional at a desk in a sublevel below. The room downstairs might have been missed had he not stumbled into what had looked like a sewer access, but as he had looked closer he had found that it was really a trap door that led to a set of stairs below. All of that aside, the main level was completely barren, but judging by the dirt it appeared to have been occupied recently. Possibly a group of people had entered to remove whatever was being stored in the building. It could be that the warehouse was up for demolition soon. Or maybe it had been sold. The Ring spirit was not too concerned about these possibilities since he only needed the space for a short amount of time. But mostly he wanted to use the space because it felt like it had been the used for a Shadow Game recently. He could feel it in the air —like a tugging at his aura that refused to be ignored. There was also the faint smell of burning ice, if it could even be described as such. So it was here that the borders between Realms would be weakest. He disregarded however all thoughts on what might have happened to cause a Game here, and concentrated on the task at hand.

The ritual itself was no simple matter. It involved calling the Shadows into that space, and demanding the presence of spirits from the Shadow Realm to take part in it. Candles had to be lit to mark the four compass directions. The Thief King pulled out some chalk and drew a rather accurate circle in the cement; large enough to hold at least four people. He glanced out the door that he had left open and found west easily enough, as the sun was setting below the water down by the docks. Beside the open door astral Bakura stood quietly and watched his every move, his gaze neither disapproving nor inviting. As the thief came back in he shut the door and shot his host a wary look.

"Tell me what you're doing," whispered Bakura. His fingers were laced together, and his shoulders were slumped. He looked defeated. Tired. Was that...loneliness in his expression?

The thief hesitated. Then, tearing his eyes away from the mournful look of his host, he stalked back to the chalk circle. "You'll find out soon enough."

"Please," Bakura begged behind him. The room was absolutely silent, and even though his voice was not discernable in the physical plane, only the astral, the thief thought that he could hear it echo. He knelt down and marked out a place for each candle. "Please don't hurt anybody. I don't know what I'd do if I..." his voice cut out with a choking noise, but the thief did not look up.

This is necessary. This is everything, thought the Ring spirit.

Dusk was falling outside. The orange-purple light streaked in through the high windows and onto the opposite wall. There were lights, but the thief had not turned them on. The darkness that was increasing was required for this to work. With the air wavering with ice, the Ring spirit reached into the shoulder bag of his host's and began removing everything that he had obtained over the past few days. A note of pride flickered in his thoughts. He had acquired all of these things. Him. And so easily! Then his eyes swept over the last item, the final necessary thing...and he faltered.

Shifting by the door, obviously wanting to be anywhere but where he was now, Bakura tried again to reason with the spirit occupying his body. "I'll do anything you ask. Have my body whenever you like. I won't fight. I won't even argue anymore. But just don't...when you died, I—"

"Your cooperation is no longer enough to satisfy me," said the Ring spirit dully. He didn't know why he was pausing in his preparation. He couldn't understand why he just didn't send his host into unconsciousness. It would certainly make things easier on him. But hearing the miserable cracked words from Bakura was giving him second thoughts.

"I was all alone in my head," Bakura went on, a bit teary-eyed, and he twisted his hands as he got more upset, "for the first time in a while. And it wasn't like all of the other times, when you went into the Shadows, and somehow I knew you'd come back. This was like—"

"Come now," interjected the thief, turning to look at Bakura with a cool expression, "I have done nothing that would make you desire my presence. Stop reminiscing about the past. And keep your thoughts in order. You're jumping all over the place."

"—it was like a great yawning emptiness. It took a while for me to realize it. I wasn't even sure what it was at first. But then it began to set in. Just...like...a hole in my head and my chest. I was missing something I hadn't even known I'd needed in the first place. I hadn't even known it was _there_. But after you left I—!" Bakura took a breath, trying to calm himself down. But then the tears fell, and he couldn't help himself from blurting out in anger, "I was just starting to piece together my life again! How could you do this to me? How could you just die and then come back to me all over again and start doing horrible things, just like before? Don't you know what it's doing to me?"

"_You_ brought me back!" The thief shouted at him, getting to his feet. Bakura's astral tears disappeared off of his face and into nothingness. "You were the one who helped me up! You were the one who put back on the Ring! _Not me_! You!"

Bakura yelled back. "Because I couldn't just _leave_ you there! How in the world could I just leave you like that? Don't you know that _I'm not like you_?"

They stood there breathing into the stillness. Only one of them breathed for necessity.

"Of course not," the thief sneered eventually, "you were never like me."

Brushing off more tears, Bakura admitted, "No. But maybe I was once. Or rather, maybe you were like me. Maybe I am the you before the fire at Kul Elna. Maybe I'm the part of your soul that was reborn from the very beginning. Before everything turned dark."

The Ring spirit looked down at the chalk in his hand —his pale hand that did not belong to him— and grimaced. A twisted scar on both the palm and the back of the hand made him remember all of the things that he'd done in this particular host body. He crushed the chalk and with it his thoughts. Nothing would deter him from his goals. Nothing. Not his host's whining. Or those miserable friends of his. "Maybe so," the thief agreed, causing Bakura to look at him in amazement, "but that still changes nothing."

"Why don't you just talk to me?" Bakura pleaded, "why can't you just tell me what's going on? You have nobody else in this whole world to talk to. So why don't you just explain things, for once?"

He snapped, and flung the chalk pieces at his host's astral form in disgust. "Because you mean nothing to me!" He cried out. Bakura ducked as the bits of chalk hit the door and burst into white dust. "You have always been just a host! No matter _how_ we're connected! No matter what the reason is! I have never cared about you, ever! So don't think for one second that I'll tell you anything," his voice dropped to a hiss, and then he spun back to his drawing on the floor and the bag.

Bakura let out a muffled sob and slid to the concrete. He buried his face in his hands and shut his eyes from the sight of the thief in front of him. Purple-orange light shone right through his body, and made a mess of the careful image by distorting lines.

And he cried.

xXx

They were making the most of their bodies by working what muscles did not ache in pain, which were admittedly very few. So it wasn't exactly running, but they moved fast enough to catch the next subway train and ride the half-hour down to the wharf, at any rate. Mokuba had offered to call a ride for them, but as his regular driver was off with his brother taking him down to meet with Siegfried, a replacement would come too slowly and they could not afford to wait. After hurriedly checking out of the hospital, Atem, Joey, Odion, Marik, and Tristan did their best to reach the warehouse in time for whatever was about to go down.

The Ring spirit could have picked a time while they were in the virtual world, they thought, and so they supposed that they should be feeling lucky. However this was not the case. Aching and wincing, they knew that they really were not healed enough to deal with him. And it was possible that they were about to obtain more injuries.

After Ishizu had phoned Kaiba's office number, and instead been redirected to Mokuba since Seto was busy, Mokuba had immediately put her on with someone more qualified to listen to her cryptic warnings about the future. Apparently Bakura had been in Priest's Seth's tomb recently, and so her attempts at determining what he was up to using the Necklace had fallen flat due to the protective wards and seals around the tomb. Earlier attempts had not been made, she had admitted, as she was rather overwhelmed with the excavation. Luckily she had been granted a vision or they would not have known to look for Bakura at the docks.

What he was up to they could only guess at, but even beaten down and weary the group had recovered enough to be able to fight back. Téa and Serenity had been instructed sternly to go home, and Mokuba had left as well, only demanding a phone call when they weren't busy to be updated on the situation. Yuugi was probably only just returning to the hospital from the Game Shop, but they had left informing him to the women as they had been too rushed at the time. Atem regretted not letting him know, but he was still too unsure of how to use their mind-link to his best advantage when all he knew was how to speak through it when Yuugi was close, and sense Yuugi's location when they were far apart. A part of him was glad that he would not be involved, though. Unless the situation took long enough for him to arrive later.

After receiving more than a few odd looks from passengers on the subway due to their bruises and bandages, they finally arrived at a close enough stop to walk the rest of the way. Gritting their teeth in pain and somewhat allowing Tristan and Odion to give them a helping hand, they started down the wide streets towards the run-down warehouse that they had entered before. It was starting to get dark out.

In silence they walked forward, having bitter faith towards a violent outcome of the situation.

xXx

In the middle of the chalk circle now rested the brazier, and within it a few hot coals which the Ring spirit had heated up by use of a makeshift fire that he had created out of wood he had brought with him and piled into a little tent-like formation. It was good that there was nothing burnable around, and that the floor was concrete, as the thief would not have liked to clean a space in order to build the fire. On top of the coals he had piled ash, and then on top of that a small amount of loose incense, which now thickened the air with a sharp scent, adding to the Shadow smell already there. Each candle had been lit, and the thief now sat on the west side of the circle facing east, where the darkness bloomed over the horizon outside and seeped in through the high windows. Astral Bakura had not moved an inch from his spot on the floor.

The Millennium Item resting against the thief's chest vibrated as he sat there, and the pointers arched, letting him know that two Items were coming closer. The Puzzle and the Rod. He would have to work quickly now.

"Your friends are coming closer," he said tauntingly, "soon there will be a battle of magic."

"You will lose," Bakura said bitingly, "you always lose."

He declined to reply. Uncapping a pen, he ripped a sheet of paper loose from a pad and began to write carefully on it, murmuring quietly in Egyptian as he wrote, "Spirits of the Shadow Realm. Demons. Creatures who seek chaos. Those who would wish harm." He capped the pen and dropped it back into the bag with the notepad. Taking his sheet of paper, he carefully folded it until it could be folded no longer; then left it in its neat square inside the chalk circle. Then he rose to his feet, and stomped on it firmly. Next, he drew forth the object that he had taken from the auction house, the neat bronze dagger inscribed with Thoth's image. Thoth, who was the creator of hieroglyphs. Gripping it tightly in one hand, he then stabbed down into the sheet of paper, imagining in his head all of the Egyptian writing tearing itself in half. Flicking the now ruined sheet into the smouldering fire that had heated the coals, he started at his astral host standing at his side. "What was that all about," Bakura mumbled. Not heatedly, just blandly.

"For the spirits I am about to call forth," the thief replied, "I will not have them wrecking any havoc." He was getting quite annoyed with his host's mood swings, but was not about to bring any attention to it. Just glancing at his face allowed him to see the misery, confusion, helplessness, curiosity, and guilt, just to name a few of the emotions that Bakura was feeling.

The third object that had been stolen, a wooden ankh, was lying in a bowl in the centre of the circle beside the brazier, and Bakura watched the thief add a heap of clay on top of it. It had been the first object that the thief had acquired, from a home belonging to a couple. Bakura remembered that the husband had been attacked by the thief, and idly hoped that he was doing okay. Then he remembered that he should be more concerned about himself.

When the thief placed the fourth and final object beside the two dishes, a statue of the god Khnum, which had been acquired from the tomb (borrowed, Bakura thought, borrowed), Bakura knew that he was ready. He stared at the statue, a human with a ram's head, and still did not see what was so important about it. Though perhaps it was simply because it had belonged to another sorcerer. Was it endued with magic?

It was getting greyer inside the warehouse as the dying sunlight failed to reach the height of the windows to be let in. The Ring spirit sat and withdrew the Item from inside his shirt, hovering his hands around the Eye in the centre. Bakura shivered.

Something was skittering down the wall. It was ruddy brown and about the size of a racoon, with six leg-like protrusions and a flat, worm-like body. Bakura opened his mouth to exclaim to the thief, but he noticed that he was no longer paying attention to his surroundings. His eyes were fully on the Ring, whose pointers were shuddering slightly against his chest.

Another creature joined the first, and then another. Now creatures were creeping all over the walls. There were some with more legs than the others, and there were some with segmented bodies like insects. They crawled down the walls from nowhere and landed with dull thumps on the floor.

The Shadow Realm was leaking spirits into the warehouse.

There was a great yawning into an unseen void, and then the walls and floor wavered out of view like a fine mist had passed over them. Loping towards the chalk circle, the strange headless creatures reached the edge and bumped into the hard air above the candles. The candlelight roared abruptly, and as the incense started to clog up the space within the chalk, the creatures began to shake and vibrate as they somehow smelled the thick scent. Bakura shied away from the creatures that were crawling over to his side of the circle, and then vanished out of the astral plane to the safety of his mind room.

Thief King Bakura took the bronze dagger in hand again and pulled forward the dish with the clay. With his eyes on the statue, completely ignoring the creatures, he cut a thin line over the scar on his host's left hand. Blood welled in his palm and he dripped it onto the clay. "Know my name," he murmured, "that which is my own as it is his. Bring me new life as I bind us to this circle."

Thoth's inscription imprinted onto his skin. The clay shook in the dish.

The creatures, perhaps a dozen of them now, shook free of the air holding them back and crossed the chalk circle to pile up over the clay dish. Another low yawning noise, deep and wide like it had been made by a large creature, reverberated about the space. Inky blackness now permeated the atmosphere as the Realms came together and joined, gushing Shadows into the chalk circle. Darkness fell down all around him. And then the creatures began ripping the clay and the Shadows apart.

He thought he saw a black ram clopping through the Shadows to cross the chalk, but then he could have been imagining things. Shadows swallowed him up, and then the creatures began crawling all over him with the clay spread thin over their bodies, smelling heavily of iron.

{Ah!}

This was a pain he'd never felt before. He'd thought he'd experienced every pain imaginable, every torture that Ammit could come up with to terrify him. Every hurt he'd been through when he'd been alive, trying to survive on his own. Salvaging enough food from his ruined village. Trudging across the endless desert to another city. The starvation, dehydration, and hallucinations. Weeks spent in a dank cell before he'd been able to get out. Thousands of years spent in the emptiness of the Ring, claiming far less hosts than he would have liked. Losing all of those Shadow Games.

{Ah!} His landlord was still screaming. He too would be yelling out loud, only there was smoke choking up his throat and he was gagged by the smell of the iron. On top of that it was impossible to move, as he was pinned by the weight of the creatures. The thief shuddered at the feel of their slimy bodies digging into his skin and reeled internally at what he was feeling inside.

Every nerve was twanging at high speed, and his bones creaked as the cartilage apparently attempted to dislodge itself from its attachments. His eyes were shut tightly, but it did not stop them from rinsing themselves desperately of the Shadows, and tears streaked down his cheeks to be brushed away by the slime sliding off of the worm creatures. His head was pounding in rhythm with his heart, and his ears ached as though the pressure in the room had suddenly dropped several levels. There was a gurgling noise in the air, but the thief could not hear it: he was too focussed on trying to get his organs to stop flipping over and rubbing against each other. {Stop, stop, you're tearing us apart,} Sobbed Bakura.

Is that what it was? This feeling of his mind room crumbling down, the host body racked with pain as his soul was ripped away? {I can't,} he told his host in a clipped tone, gritting his teeth as he fought with the pain, {I can't do anything.}

For a second he lost consciousness. In the moment afterward he struggled to regain sense of where he was and thought, briefly, that this was probably how Bakura felt when he pushed him out of the way.

The clay was warping shape, expanding like a bubbling balloon and leaving the dish, gobbling up the shredded Shadows at the feet of the worm creatures. With the help of the creatures, the outer film of the clay attached itself to the wound on the thief's palm. There was a sucking sound and a spasm from the thief, and then the body suddenly dropped to the floor, no longer able to sit upright. Golden light shot forth from the Ring but was smothered by the body that landed on top of it.

Continuing to grow larger, the clay transformed and the creatures at the base of it scampered out of the way. The chalk circle kept the clay contained, but the candlelight was flickering as it was nearly snuffed out. There was no one to see it, but the black ram hovering in the Shadow Realm took a good look at the scene and slowly plodded away, and the Realms split apart behind it. Shadows were swallowed up, and the worm creatures went with them as reality sewed itself back up. The candlelight finally went out.

The door to the warehouse slammed open, and florescent lights blinked on as a light was switched.

"What has he done?" Came a horrified whisper into the space. Atem, Joey, Odion, Marik and Tristan stumbled into the warehouse.

Collapsed on the floor was Bakura, whose clothing was a muddy mess of black and purple and muted red from his own blood and from the discharges of the creatures. Beyond him lay a jumble of things, least of which were candles and dishes, but the most disconcerting thing was a large mass of what looked like black and brown mud towering over the helpless Bakura.

"What the—" exclaimed Joey.

"Demon?" Wondered Tristan at the same time.

And that is when the thing began to move. It bubbled and cracked, and great chunks of it broke off and landed with soft plops onto the concrete. As one the group pulled out their decks, save for Tristan, who ran his fingers over his cards in his pocket but knew he would be useless if a duel would indeed be needed. They watched the mass continue to fall apart, with the mud bulging out as though something was forcing its way out from the inside. Holes began to appear in the mass, and then the greatest portion of it dropped to the ground, and all at once the thing inside was free to climb out.

Shaking his feet free of Shadow clay, the Thief King stepped out of the mass and brushed his brilliant red cloak down for loose dirt. His head shook; the white hair was a mess of mats and dirt but it still managed to flash under the harsh lighting. He took several deep breaths, relishing the feel of his lungs expanding and the icy scent filtering down his throat.

"No..." Atem murmured, "...not possible." The rest of them were just as shocked, voices lost as they stared at what surely could not be happening, hands still hovering over duel disks. Their enemy appeared amused.

His amusement was lost as he locked eyes with Atem, and he paused only a moment to step out of the chalk circle, glancing down briefly at Bakura lying at his feet. His hand reached down and scooped up his deck from his former vessel's pocket. Then he straightened, sliding the deck into a deep pocket in his cloak. There, thought the thief in some satisfaction, now I am armed. "My Pharaoh," he said mockingly, taking a light bow, "we meet again. It has been...far too long."

"What have you done to him," Atem responded coldly, taking a stand with something that he could at least understand. Concern for his friend.

Sneering a bit, the thief did not even bother looking at Bakura as he took a step closer. "Nothing that was not necessary. I've discarded him now; he is no longer useful to me. Not when I have my own body." Even dirtied and unarmed (did a dueling deck count?) the thief was still imposing, but it probably had more to do with the angry expression that he was levelling at Atem rather than the Shadow magic they knew that he could throw at them. When he continued forward to decrease the distance between them, Joey, Odion, and Tristan all backed up warily whilst Atem and Marik stood their ground.

He was not wearing the Ring, and Atem's eyes flickered briefly to Bakura on the ground, to the brown cord that he could see peeking out from under his hair. He talked to distract the thief from it. "So that is what you have been doing all of this time. Preparing for a new body."

"If you're looking for an explanation, you're not going to get it," the thief drawled, "not even from my host. He was unconscious for the majority of it."

"So I suspected," Atem snapped back, "you do not seem to recognize how predictable you are."

Rolling his tongue over his teeth, the thief shifted his weight subtly and dropped his voice. "Then I suppose you know exactly what I'm thinking,"

Atem's eyes narrowed. "Go ahead and try it."

Rushing forward, the thief lashed out at Atem, who brought up both arms in front of his face to block his punch. But he didn't stop there, and called on the Shadows to force them against Atem, whose Puzzle responded accordingly. Light clashed against darkness. Magic reeled about the Pharaoh and splashed off of the golden light shielding him, slamming against the door behind him.

A loud screech sounded through the space, and then the door broke off of its hinges, landing with a crash several feet away from the warehouse. The thief rushed forward again, hands blackened like he had just sifted through soot. But there was violet mist gathering at his fingertips, and the rest of the group backed up significantly to give the two space. "Buddy, are you gonna be okay?" Joey cried out in worry.

"Yes," Atem did not move his eyes from his opponent, but even if he had started to the thief would not have given him the time. Their hands met, and their fingers laced together as each tried to push the other back.

Darkness was spewing out everywhere. The Puzzle was ringing madly, sucking up energy to keep the air clear of his enemy's magic field. Grinding his teeth, the former Ring spirit let out a half-laugh as he taunted Atem. "Did something happen while I was away, Pharaoh? You seem a little..." Their muscles strained, shoes scraping against the concrete as a blast of cold, electric air whooshed under their clothes. The metal walls of the warehouse were vibrating like a wind storm had just blown over, and the windows high above cracked. Atem smashed his energy field against the thief's, and he could feel his nerves being plucked at as a grating feeling sliced through his body. They both shouted obscurities, and then broke apart breathing a little heavily. If anything the anger of the thief's had leaked into Atem, and now they both stared furiously at each other. "You look a little injured," he finished snidely.

"Then we are an even match," Atem returned easily.

With his magic field crackling with energy, the thief raced forward again with a hard look on his face. Evidently his muscle weakness and soreness had been spotted, even though he had been trying to distract the Pharaoh from it. Coldly lashing out again with his fists, he was met with an effective parry and then a flash of icy shock from the Puzzle, which he mostly avoided due to a duck. Still a good portion blasted his ribs and shoulder, and inside his head he cursed. Above them the windows shattered and glass came pouring down over their heads. Atem backed up some paces, and found himself outside.

Breathing out harshly, and cloak flaring behind him, the thief rushed at the ancient king with only darkness in his hands and darkness in his mind. The ground tore up beneath them; asphalt crumbling as the two sorcerers bolted towards each other, leaving heavy footprints in their wake. And again their magic met, jarring them and spinning them away from each other.

Sidestepping another energy blast, which barely kissed the side of a light pole before dissipating, causing the light to spark and burn out, Atem quickly forged a block of Shadows to provide some protection whilst he tried to get closer. "This is meaningless, you realize," Atem started.

Cutting him off, the Thief King tried to circle around him as he lashed out at Atem's block, "It's never meaningless!" He shouted at him.

Atem panted as he circled too in order to keep up with his movements. On the sidelines he could see Marik preparing to club him with the back of his hand, and he thought for a moment that they could simply knock him out before the situation got too violent. But the thief had more instinct than he had realized; spinning when Marik got too close, he kicked out and landed on top of Marik as he hit the ground. Atem was at Marik's side before the others could even move in to help, but then his enemy scrambled away, with Marik groaning and clutching his head as Atem helped him to his feet.

"You can't win with all of us here," Tristan said firmly, "even if we can't use magic like you two, we'll still be able to bring you down. And you know it."

"There is no point in fighting us anymore," Odion put in, "don't you see that? You've lost before, and you'll lose again."

Yelling angrily, the thief replied, "If you think I'm going to back off, think again."

And that is when all the lights within a block went out.

"We'll fight for eternity, you and I, Pharaoh!" Called out the Thief King, with his arms spread wide in a welcoming gesture. Marik shot Atem a wary look, but he didn't return it. "Call it destiny or fate, but it's the truth! We're captured in an eternal struggle that breaks even the bonds of death itself! So stop planning strategies," he snarled, "and pull out your fists. I want to see your hands get bloody."

His words could not have struck Atem harder than they did in that moment. Even in the Afterlife he hated me, the Pharaoh thought, for the first time considering in full what the thief must be feeling and thinking. He sighed, and a soft tone left his lips.

"Eternity is far too long to hold a grudge, Bakura."


	34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34

Marik had once explained to Yuugi while they were burning time in the hospital about all of the ancient scriptures that he had studied as part of his duties as a tomb keeper. He had learned language, culture, history, religion, and most importantly about the life of the Pharaoh and about the Millennium Items. Yuugi had listened curiously because he had never deeply considered what Marik had done down in the underground home of the tomb keeper clan, and it was interesting to find out how much knowledge his people had crammed into his head. Marik himself found it both frustrating and amusing that he had never learned about the more important things in life, such as modern technology and modern culture. When he had at last escaped from the home that he had lived in his whole life, taking Odion with him, he had found to his dismay that he was horribly unprepared for the 'real world'. Nothing he knew could help him in navigating the cities of the Egypt of the current century, and even his accent was off, so used was he to speaking in an ancient language that his Arabic was understandably flawed.

All of this he had found out, and even though Marik spoke somewhat vaguely, he did seem to open up a little at Yuugi's completely understanding and kind nature. He had told him that the texts and scrolls that the tomb keeper clan had were just as old as the ones in the clan of the guardians of the Millennium Items, and so both groups knew far more detail about the New Kingdom and beyond than even the greatest Egyptologists did. They also had knowledge passed down by word of mouth only, such as songs and fictional stories for children. So as they had sat in Marik's hospital room and talked over the things that had Marik rarely spoken to anyone about, Yuugi had learned a bit more about the Pharaoh and the Thief King than he had known before.

It was this information that flashed through his mind now as he hurried to the warehouse straight after the phone call with Téa. Marik had offered up the description that the hate that Bakura held for Atem could shake mountains and tear up the earth. It sounded overdramatic, but then considering that he had been willing to destroy the world to obtain his revenge Yuugi couldn't disagree on this point. The thought whirled about in his head now, and he eyed the street that he was about to turn onto with some anxiety. He was sincerely bothered to see that all of the street lights in this particular section of the district were shattered and burnt out, and now he ran in darkness, his sides aching from lack of exercise. And it probably didn't help that he was still recovering from having the duel monster poison choking up his muscles and eating away at his strength. Running was really not the best thing for him to be doing, he knew, but he really wanted to reach the others as soon as possible.

Ahead of him metal walls clanged and wobbled, and doors shook on their hinges. Heart thumping against his sore rib cage, Yuugi ran closer and was met with the vision of red and blue auras striking at each other madly. The red belonged to Atem, he knew, and he strained his eyes and slowed to see a shadowed figure drop into a roll. Atem was ducking under a silent wave that hummed in the air and skimmed a warehouse's roof, slicing clean through some tiles and causing pieces to drop to the asphalt with a crash. It gave a whole new meaning to the phrase 'silent but deadly', and Yuugi's breath was caught in his throat in concern.

There were black Shadow clouds surrounding the two as well as the cloak that the night draped them in, Yuugi realized, which was why he was having trouble seeing them. But the figure wrapped in blue was not so invisible that he did not recognize him, and so Yuugi panted while his brain tried to process what he was indeed seeing.

Bakura the King of Thieves was not giving an inch to the Pharaoh, even when he managed to dodge his every attack and come up with another ridiculous Shadow trick. There was one where he formed a block of black clouds in front of him, and one where black mist gathered around them and hid the man from his view, and yet another where he made the ground slick and soppy with Shadows, making it difficult for the thief to get closer. It infuriated him that he did not know any of these tricks, and he was having some trouble using his own magic since he had relied for so long on the Ring, which was still hanging around his host's neck. But soon he regained his footing from the mess that the Pharaoh had made on the ground, and found his way through the mist that had been clogging the air, and espied his enemy standing up from a recent roll, blocks of Shadows hovering around him.

So the thief pulled out the technique that he had been relearning as they fought, and stepped into the Shadow Realm, vanishing from view. The Pharaoh rocked back on his feet, alarmed and instantly wary, looking around for where he might have gone. Bakura reappeared an instant later behind him, dropping down about a foot in the air to land a solid kick in Atem's lower back. Atem hit the ground, hard, and Bakura vanished once more.

Yuugi dared to get closer, having since recovered from the shock of seeing Bakura in his old body. But the new shock of seeing the thief actually _teleport_ was making him scared for his other half's life. The thief reappeared to yell at Atem. He couldn't make some of it out at first, but as he drew closer his ears picked up his voice more clearly. "Everything you are is everything I'm against," Bakura told his opponent who was still picking himself up off of the ground. Atem wiped a thin trail of blood from a cut lip and Bakura clenched his fingers together at the sight, attempting a lifeless grin to further mock the Pharaoh. "I'm not going to back off until one of us is dead."

"Rarely have I tried to reason with you," Atem began, and the thief fumed silently at his words, "but I am going to do so now." He straightened his back and carefully picked his way through the slosh of Shadows to a space free of them, a bit further back from Bakura than before. Behind him Odion, Joey, Marik, and Tristan spotted Yuugi and rushed to his side, but Atem was not paying attention and so didn't notice their absence. "Even if one of us were to die again, what then, Bakura? Would you go on, seething in this life or the Afterlife? Would you be overcome with an emptiness for no longer having a goal? For there is nothing else left for you, is there? I am truly the only thing that you have clung to for all of these years. Your hate for me...that is the only thing that matters to you anymore. So if that were to be taken away, if you could not move to attempt to defeat me, you would have a meaningless existence. Is that not so?"

He lunged for Atem, flashing out of the Light Realm and then back again so quickly, that if Atem had blinked he would have missed it. As it was he could not even get his muscles to move, so immediately was the thief at his side, with his hands inches from his face. Atem cried out as he hit the ground again, and Bakura's hands fisted in his shirt. "I do hate you! Completely! And it's not something that will go away just because it's not _logical_, Pharaoh!" Atem groaned from having his head hit the ground once again, and his fingers wrapped around the thief's wrists to try and pry his hands away. His Puzzle was responding wonderfully, glaring white hot light into the thief's eyes, but even half-blinded the man would not look away. The air was a mess of their auras, blue and red melded in some revolting cocktail that made Atem's nerves sick and his mind whirl. "You remind me of _him_," Bakura was snarling in his face.

"Who?" Atem yelled back, desperately clawing at Bakura's hands, but his hold was too tight and he felt that he might as well just remove his shirt, since pulling at his hands was so useless. But the thief's weight was too much to throw off regardless.

"It's your eyes," Bakura told him viciously, "your father's eyes. Your uncle's eyes!" He glanced up and got a good look at Yuugi standing there, watching in horror. Atem followed his gaze and started. His stunned expression was reflected back at him on Yuugi's face, and then he turned his head back to Bakura, who was baring his teeth. "_Yuugi's _eyes,"

"You leave him out of this!" Atem screamed at him. He worked up enough energy to roll them over, but Bakura let go and vanished away again.

There was a car rolling down the street towards them, and they could hear the sound of the wheels and the engine whirring. The thief didn't like the idea of being interrupted, and reappeared to turn towards the vehicle with an unreadable expression on his face, his hands black.

Unnoticed behind the group on the sidelines, laying just outside of the warehouse with a sweatshirt under his head where his friends had placed him, Ryou Bakura had regained consciousness. He spent a while trying to figure out why his mind felt so sore and hollow, and then remembered with a cold drop in his stomach the ritual that his other half had been invoking. He ran his fingers over the gravel underneath his hands and blinked his eyes, trying to figure out what he was seeing, and what he was feeling. Numbness was the only way to describe his condition, a sensation tugging at his insides that made him dizzy and left him feeling confused. But then he began to recognize the stars over his head as his mind slowly became used to thinking alone again. There was no heavy weight in his body anymore, no second half of a soul that he had to carry, and the space where it had been was so shockingly large that Bakura himself did not know how to fill the space. Surely his soul was large enough to fit in his body alone. Surely he wasn't missing anything important.

He pushed himself up onto his elbows, and blinked fuzzy spots out of his vision as he firmly told himself to get a grip. The mind link was throbbing painfully like it had been stretched beyond belief, and he had to push it to the furthest corner of his mind in order to be able to think. Then he was able to sit up. He took in the vision of the thief and the Pharaoh arguing and the car rolling towards them, and he faltered. His thoughts rewound for a minute and he reconsidered what he was seeing. He couldn't be that out of it, could he? But no: the thief and the Pharaoh were arguing. Standing there, in the flesh, was the voice in his head, with his own body at last.

You really did rip us apart, thought Bakura in horror. As if reading his thoughts, the former spirit abruptly looked over and their eyes met.

"We'll finish this later, Pharaoh," threatened the thief, and it took everyone a second to realize why: Seto Kaiba was stepping out from the car. Bakura got to his feet shakily, and drew their attention when the thief continued to stare at him. Or rather, continued to stare at the Ring drooping around his neck. "I'll return for that, dear host," he smirked, "so do keep it safe for me."

Darkness folded around him and he left.

For a good several seconds everyone just stood there and breathed, and then Atem released his hold on his magic so that the ground and air could become clean again. Kaiba stepped forward and demanded an explanation harshly. While Odion and Marik tried to give him a basic rundown of what had happened, the rest of them turned to Bakura who found himself shaking in his shoes.

They know, he thought, they know that I brought him back. They know that I did it.

Then Yuugi offered a tentative smile, and Bakura collapsed to the ground in relief. "Hullo," he said miserably, "it's nice to see everyone again..."

"Bakura!" Tristan ran forward in concern, and Joey, Atem, and Yuugi joined him. Bakura wrung his hands and ran his fingers through his hair in some embarrassment. "Are you okay?"

"Ah...I think I'm just...exhausted," Bakura replied nervously.

Odion, Marik, and Kaiba wandered over. "I think it's time you gave us the unedited version of what happened to you in the Afterlife," Kaiba said sternly. Bakura's eyes widened, and Yuugi turned around.

"Kaiba, I really don't think that this is the best time. He's been through a lot—"

Grinding his teeth slightly, Kaiba responded. "Oh, I'm sure that he has—"

Mokuba broke in, sliding out of the car and walking over to them. "He's right, though, big brother. We really don't have the time. I thought you wanted to get to Siegfried's office? I know you took a detour to see if they were all right, but..." The look on Kaiba's face apparently warned him from finishing his sentence. They all looked over at Mokuba, apparently having forgotten what Kaiba had spent his evening doing. Bakura relaxed minutely from the relief that this brought, but fidgeted over the thoughtful look that Atem briefly granted him. "We need to hurry up or he'll get irritated."

Smoothly, Odion asked, "You managed to make a deal for the cards?"

A sigh, and then a short nod. "He brought over one of them for our meeting and I got a good look at it. It's definitely the real deal. An Orichalcos card. Now I only need to meet him at his office to buy the full set. We've agreed on a price." Kaiba answered curtly.

"Orichalcos?" Bakura whispered, startling the group a little. They tried to figure out what to say, before Bakura himself saved them the trouble. "Sorry, I guess now isn't the greatest time." He mumbled.

Scratching his head, Joey drew the attention away from Bakura and muttered, "Is this really what we should be doin' right now, when Dark Marik and now Bakura are loose? Chasing after duel cards? Okay, so they're a worry, but shouldn't we worry about them later?" He wondered aloud.

Tristan jabbed him in the ribs. "But we've got to get them before either of those two do, you see, so that they won't be using them against us."

"Oh."

The car was still running, and Kaiba made a motion with his hands. "Everyone get in. I don't have the time to take you anywhere, but I will drop you off wherever you like after I'm finished."

They agreed and began to enter the vehicle, which they realized was a bit larger than a car, and more like a limousine though not quite so long. Tristan and Joey gathered up Bakura's things, which he admitted were more the thief's than his own, and helped him into the vehicle since his head was still spinning. The doors clicked shut and everyone sat back. Bakura caught everyone's curious looks at his bag, where the metal box with the scrolls and the statue were peeking out. He cleared his throat unexpectedly.

"Khnum is from Seth's tomb. He took it."

There was another quiet silence where the group tried to figure out what to say to that, before Marik said, "Ishizu suspected that he took something."

"You can have it back," Bakura murmured, "when you go back to Egypt."

"Yeah."

Bakura turned his eyes to the window and the sights outside, and avoided the rest of the looks from his friends. It took quite a while before his heart settled down, though.

His mind was still echoing with the absence of the thief, and his thoughts rebounded back to him, not heard by his other half, even through their link.

xXx

The mind link between the ancient thief and his reincarnation was indeed damaged and so was not working as it should, but the thief did not need to hear his former host's thoughts in order to find out where they were going. Bakura sat on the rooftop of a nearby warehouse and rubbed the sore muscles in his arms, and stretched his limbs in an attempt to ease the pain from his new body. He wondered if he might try to follow the car driving away below him, or wander off ahead to find the office building of Siegfried's. There was a hollow ache in the back of his mind, and he pressed his fingers against his temples as if he might ward off the migraine that was sure to come while he thought.

"Blast it," he decided aloud, "I'll just go ahead. I could find the place in half the time it'd take that car to get there anyway." Standing carefully, he took a step off of the edge of the roof and vanished, landing with a soft thump in the Shadow Realm. The action made him smirk lightly, proud as he was of how much better he was getting at it. Then he began working his way through the murky darkness, heading off in the direction of the business district.

His anger had not died down in the least since leaving the Pharaoh, and it bothered him extremely that Kaiba had shown up in that moment. The tomb keeper had worried him for a minute, but after soundly dropping the man to the asphalt he had realized that Marik was in no condition to be fighting, no matter how skilled he was at close combat. But the moment the High Priest's reincarnation had stepped out of the vehicle, Bakura had known something was off. It had taken him a second to recognize the unhandled energy field surrounding him, and after seeing the smouldering irritation behind Kaiba's gaze he'd abruptly felt it'd be better if he just came at the Pharaoh when the man was alone. The idea of losing once again to Kaiba did not appeal to him in the least, though it seemed like he was less trained in magic than he was in dueling. Still, he would be difficult to bring down and Bakura was exhausted.

Maybe it was simply because he had just regained his body, and so was still settling his soul inside it and was having problems adjusting to all of the feelings. There were definitely a lot of them, anyway, things that he didn't even remember feeling, things that he was sure he had not encountered while residing in a host. At first it was the small things he didn't know how to deal with: his hair was different than his host's, much shorter, and it made his head feel lighter; his attire was better suited for warmer climates and having the air bite at his skin surprised him. Then he began to notice other things too, things he also didn't know how to adjust to, and couldn't even put a name to. For one, his stomach felt odd. Tight and painful. Bakura had not fed this particular body yet, and so he assumed it was simply hunger that was bothering him. It hadn't occurred to him that he'd have to take care of his body once he'd gotten it. When he'd had a host, he usually just left all of the body's needs to them and hadn't worried about food or sleep. Sleep! When was the last time his mind had been silent? Even trapped in the Ring he'd been semi-conscious, and the idea of leaving himself so vulnerable to rest his mind upset him.

Pushing these thoughts aside he fuelled the anger bubbling in his gut and stumbled through the blackness, sifting through Shadows and checking his location and direction every once in a while by peeking out of the holes he ripped open in-between the Realms. It did not take him long to reach the business district, and then he was busy reading signs as he hazarded a guess at which one was Siegfried's office building.

He clearly remembered the chaos and destruction the power of the Orichalcos had wrought, and knew the cards must hold immeasurable power. How the man had obtained them he had no idea, but this was a rare chance that Bakura was absolutely not going to pass up. They would be his new tool for as long as he didn't bear the Ring. And they would fit perfectly in with his manipulative occult deck.

There. He'd found it.

It was a building almost identical to all of the others in the district: some twenty floors, shining silver in the night, with wide glass windows at regular intervals. Bright lights lit up behind closed shutters to scare away would-be intruders, but Bakura was not an amateur and so was not fooled. There was no one indoors, he knew, save perhaps for a couple of security guards and an employee cranking out reports in a tiny cubicle. Bakura strode up the sidewalk to the front door, ignoring the surveillance camera which buzzed and sputtered to a halt on its revolving track when his magic hit the electrical cords.

The doors had simple deadbolts. Deadbolts. Bakura was suddenly starting to enjoy himself. Then he realized that he could just walk _through_ the doors, and his half-smile disappeared. "Where's the fun in this anymore?" He muttered, and slid through the glass, barely opening the Shadow Realm before opening another tear about an inch in. To the average passer-by it would have appeared that he had just stepped through the glass, with barely a movement of his hands as he stretched reality and only the slightest hint of Shadows smoking out behind him (but those were not even noticeable under the cover of the night).

First of all, it smelled like bleach. Bleach and air freshener. Wrinkling his nose for a moment, Bakura tested out breathing through his mouth before he decided that having his own body to smell with once again after so many millennia was not so bad. Although there were probably better scents out there than this. Less noticeable ones. He took off to read the directory bolted onto a far wall, by some elevators at the end of the rectangular room that served as the entrance. It proved to not be very helpful, labelling room numbers and divisions more than it did names. Still, it was a start. Committing some of the information to memory, he started towards the elevators before realising the futility of that, too. Perhaps this new ability of his made things a tad _too_ easy. Bakura huffed a bit as he thought this.

He altered his location several floors and looked around at the quiet hallway he suddenly found himself in. Something caught his attention. There was a security guard slumped on the floor, head baring a nasty reddening that would surely turn to a bruise before the end of the night. Bakura was instantly alert.

Slowing his breathing, he reeled in his aura for good measure and crept towards the guard, his fingers dipping under the man's chin to find a pulse. Out cold. And then the thief listened, ignoring his own heartbeat in his ears to catch the tell-tale shuffling of someone in a room down the hall.

Gently placing his feet on the maroon carpeting, he made his way down the hall to glance briefly in open doorways, where offices looked like they had been recently rummaged through; drawers and cabinets lay half open and some of the contents had been removed. A thief had come here before him, and Bakura was not pleased in the least to know this.

A neat bronze plaque was nailed to the door that the stranger was in, and Bakura peered for a moment at the kanji before smirking. Siegfried von Schroeder.

The hinges looked well-oiled, but he was uncertain regardless, and so he pushed only lightly on the wood to get it to open a further foot or two so that he could see who was inside.

This room was a corner office, and it was large indeed, with a long desk occupying a good portion of the middle of the space, and some chairs placed throughout. There was a filing cabinet in the corner between the two windows, and the stranger was going through the drawers while Bakura hovered in the doorway. Bubblegum-haired Siegfried was crumpled like a paper bag in his office chair, head resting on his keyboard with another red mark on his forehead like the guard's.

"Are you going to come in or not?"

Bakura straightened at the world-weary tone from the man rifling through the filing cabinet, folders flying out every which way as he dug through it. His instincts were screaming at him to attack the man, although he could not figure out why, but if he had learned anything as a thief then he had learned to strike first and ask questions later. He called out Shadows in a blink, and struck out hard.

The man whirled around quicker than he had expected, dark hair matted with sweat and blank eyes revealing something far more deadly than a knife. Suddenly they seemed purple, and then Bakura was shouting as the man reflected his energy with a smooth swipe of his hand, batting it away like a cat.

Rolling dark energy struck him like a punch in the abdomen, and Bakura stumbled backward and hit the wall of the hallway opposite the room.

Both men breathed out slowly.

"Long time no see, tomb robber," whispered the man in the room.

Eyes forming a hard glint, and lips peeling back to grin wildly, Bakura returned, "I knew there was something odd about you. Your new body doesn't look so great, tomb keeper," he chuckled.

Dark Marik looked just as pleased. "So they have brought something else out from the Afterlife. Who would have thought they'd go back for you?"

"Unlike you, it seems like I have a more trustworthy host," Bakura shrugged nonchalantly.

"Oh you do, do you?" Dark Marik seethed, "which is exactly why he still has the Ring, huh?"

Just as angry now, Bakura hissed, "I've discarded the thing. There's something far more interesting that I want now. And what about you, tomb keeper? Just left the Rod with your better half, did you?"

Hands clenched and eyes on fire, the dark spirit rounded the desk. "I've..._discarded _it."

They launched themselves at each other. Dark Marik's shoulder collided with Bakura's, and they both stumbled sideways, hands reaching out to claw at each other's face. Wasting no time with minor sorcery, Bakura dug out his deck from his pocket and called out the first monster that he could see resting on top into existence. "I'm about to get my revenge on you for what you did to me during Battle City," Bakura chuckled, "Dark Necrofear! Come forth!"

Indigo-skinned and humanoid in shape, Necrofear looked like it could belong on the set of a horror movie or a thriller. Pointed teeth accented the permanent smile on the creature's face. With one arm around a broken doll it carried, it reached forward to grab at Dark Marik. He reeled backward, hitting the end of the hallway. Behind a corner lay a curling staircase, but Bakura doubted he'd go for it. The man wasn't the type to back off from a fight.

"Oh, what's the big deal," Dark Marik sneered, "I was hardly the first to send you into the Shadow Realm. And you always came back anyway."

"Do you think it was so _easy_ for me?" Bakura yelled, and Dark Marik laughed heartily. Necrofear struck out again, long legs propelling it quickly to the enemy sorcerer. But he was already drawing his deck from his own pocket, flipping to an appropriate card and shouting out its name. Dark Necrofear met a blinding flash of steel and muscle, and crumpled to the floor dripping its guts onto the carpet.

Bakura took a good look at the monster that had sprung forth from Dark Marik's card and recognized the sword-wielder instantly, as he was intimately familiar with fiend types. Beast of Talwar towered over the both of them at well over seven feet, but Bakura was not concerned. His enemy had just instigated the plan for his defeat. He let his face crinkle into a grin as the ceiling clouded over with a muddy orange fog, and he pointed one finger towards the Beast as Dark Marik ordered an attack on him. Giant eyes and toothy mouths appeared hanging overhead, winking and snapping open occasionally. Too late Dark Marik realized his mistake.

Watching with satisfaction as the ghost of Dark Sanctuary possessed the fiend, Bakura did not move an inch from his spot and let the Beast amble forward. It stumbled suddenly, roared, and then the ghost slipped out of its skin to blast towards Dark Marik's body. Bakura ground his teeth as the man did exactly what he had not expected, and bolted down the staircase. "After him!" Bakura commanded his ghost, who hissed angrily in response and floated eagerly down the stairs after his enemy.

Striding after them both, he was stopped in the hallway as the Beast held out its twin Talwar swords in the ready position. Its narrow yellow eyes glowered at him. "Out of the way," Bakura murmured darkly, "or would you attempt to assault me again and have my ghost make not one attack, but two on your master?"

Reluctantly, the Beast vanished from his view, likely to return to its card.

Racing to the end of the hall, Bakura peered over the banister and let out a frustrated noise at the sight of Dark Marik jumping down the stairs five or six at a time, the ghost still chasing after him, screeching. Bakura climbed up on top of the banister, and made an approximate guess at which floor each flight of stairs represented. Dark Marik glanced upward and caught his gaze, and Bakura smirked as he stepped off of the edge, savouring the image of the man's eyes widening as he shifted Shadows around him.

He stepped out ahead of his ghost but several feet behind Dark Marik, and internally praised his skill at transporting himself before leaping towards him. "Apparently the horrors of the Shadow Realm did nothing to temper your recklessness," Dark Marik leered.

"No, but it did increase my creativity!" Bakura fisted his hands as Dark Marik rocked forward on his feet, "I've already thought of a dozen ways to kill you!"

"Hah!" There was a knife in the tomb keeper's hand, something Bakura hadn't noticed before. It looked more like a letter opener, actually, and he couldn't help but laugh as he drew within striking distance. Behind him the ghost of Dark Sanctuary whooshed overhead, and hit Dark Marik full in his chest. Screaming briefly in pain, the tomb keeper was unprepared for Bakura's punch in the stomach, and he stumbled through an open doorway into another office as Bakura followed. The ghost circled overhead, invisible to the enemy but not to its master. It was now useless with no duel monsters on the opponent's field, as it could only attack the duelist when an attack was ordered on Bakura first.

This was a man who could handle pain, Bakura thought as Dark Marik recovered and switched the letter opener into his other hand, slicing through clothing and skin and nerve endings. The thief sidestepped the next slice, and ducked under a third to punch again, barely causing any damage to the tomb keeper —or so he thought. It had been a light hit, the thief thought in confusion, but Dark Marik clearly bit back a pained noise as he put the table between the two of them. "Damaged host body?" Bakura asked mockingly. He needed to distract him from the wound he'd made across his collar bone, which was bleeding profusely behind both his cloaks. His outer crimson cloak should hide most of the blood it absorbed due to it being near the same colour, but in no time it would bleed through and start dripping all over the floor.

Dark Marik indicated his chest with a weary sigh, and the thief thought he saw a set of violet eyes staring intensely at him behind the brown eyes of his host's. "Yes, unfortunately. This is what happens when you defy the Pharaoh. But you would know about that, wouldn't you, tomb robber?"

"You know nothing," Bakura snapped viciously, "absolutely _nothing_, about me."

An insane smile spread across the tomb keeper's face, and something like a shiver shot down the thief's spine. Flashes of his duel with the dark personality went through the thief's mind, and he tried to push down the memories forcefully. They were one of the many things that he would rather not remember if he could help it. "Oh," said Dark Marik thoughtfully, "but I think I do. I studied our dear Pharaoh's life, after all. And you were such a major...roadblock for him,"

"Don't act like you're so much better!" As he rounded the desk the letter opener flashed forward again, but that didn't stop Bakura from ramming into Dark Marik and wrapping his fingers around the shorter man's neck. The height difference definitely threw Bakura for a fleeting moment, as he had distinctly remembered the man being somewhat taller than him. Nonetheless he removed all thoughts but destruction from his mind and began to squeeze.

Slicing the letter opener over his hands to try and loosen his grip, and seeing the tactic fail, Dark Marik settled for dropping the tool to use his hands to try and pry the thief's fingers away from his neck. But they quickly grew slick with blood, and slid across the broken skin uselessly. "Ah!" The men struggled against each other, and Dark Marik backed up as Bakura moved forward. Both coughed in pain and shouted obscenities.

They abruptly hit the open window, just wide and tall enough for a small child to fit through. The fly screen snapped out of place as Bakura shoved Dark Marik against it, and then they were both leaning over the edge, with cars honking horns down below. "You're about to fall into an abyss far deeper than the Shadow Realm," Bakura informed Dark Marik, "an abyss called death."

"You know," said Dark Marik conversationally, voice rough with his airways being restricted, "Pharaoh had me in a similar position not too long ago,"

Bakura ground his teeth and did not even try to feign disinterest, with his anger quite obvious on his face. He continued on to block out Dark Marik's words. "I want you to remember the man who finally ended your life. So you can sit in the Afterlife and hate me for it."

"Do you want to know what I said to him? Do you? I'll tell you anyway. I said to him, your reason for sending me to the Shadows is because of despair. The feeling of utter hopelessness. Of knowing loss. You want to send me away for the same reason, don't you, tomb robber? Because you fear me. Because you fear losing, you fear the Shadows. You fear being sent back to the Afterlife to live out the rest of eternity in torture for your crimes." Bakura was shaking down to his shoes, and he could almost no longer feel the blood snaking down his fingers to pool in the tomb keeper's clothing. He almost couldn't feel the gash in his collar rubbing against the fabric of his cloak, against the cool metal of his necklace. He almost couldn't feel his head pounding as he remembered the god card rising up into the air on Dark Marik's field, drawing forth air to pound his life points into nothingness. Almost. "You're similar to Pharaoh in that sense, aren't you? You're both just lashing out in self-preservation! _You_ fear _me_,"

Was that a flash of white hair below on the sidewalk, thought the thief, or was it just his imagination? He wet his lips to voice his final thought. "Remember me, tomb keeper. Thief King Bakura."

Dark Marik grinned, and then Bakura pushed him over the edge.


	35. Chapter 35

Chapter 35

It wasn't quite like in the movies or the books, where things fell in slow-motion because of the shock and disbelief everyone felt at the time. The group of them had been in the process of walking up to the main doors when they had seen the thief and Dark Marik hanging out of the window a couple of floors up, and had stared in horror, before Atem had quickly summoned his Curse of Dragon to try and save the host body before it was too late.

Dark Marik fell, and he fell so quickly that it was almost unbelievable that the Dragon would make it, scooping up the man in its jaws, gently bringing him to the ground before them. Above them the thief disappeared from their sight.

The Dragon disappeared before a bystander could notice it, and they stood is suspended wariness for Dark Marik to get to his feet and attack them. But he did not.

Then Marik wandered forward. Joey moved to join his side, but Yuugi held him back with a hand. "This is for Marik to end," Yuugi mumbled, "it isn't our place anymore." Joey opened his mouth as if to protest, but then closed it and shifted uncertainly on his feet. They watched in complete silence as Marik approached his other half, lying defeated on the cold ground. He was bleeding terribly from the sharp teeth of the Dragon that had caught him, and Atem regretted the poor choice in duel monster but knew he'd had no time to think and his deck had sent him the first card he'd thought of when he had placed his hand on it.

His eyes were closed, but he turned his head and opened them blearily when he heard footsteps approaching him. For a second he lay stunned, and then he croaked, "I thought I killed you."

Marik dropped to his knees by Dark Marik's head. "You tried," he whispered, "but you are just anger and hate. And I have friends to get me back on my feet."

Dark Marik blinked, and then breathed out a rough sigh. "Somehow, this makes sense that this is the way it ends. Like in the books we —you— read, right? The bad guy defeated at the end."

Choking up a little, Marik swallowed the lump in his throat. "This isn't a book," he returned softly. He didn't know what was wrong with him, and felt deep within himself for all of the anger that he held towards his dark personality, but found with surprise that it had all dried up without his knowing it. There was nothing that he could pull from anymore to fuel his need to destroy the spirit, and he was now at a loss for what to do with him.

"I know," smiled Dark Marik, "but I'm still going to die." If he was expecting a response, then Marik failed to deliver. The words had all left him now too. "You know, I did this all for you." Marik continued to be unresponsive, but the confusion was visible on his face. Dark Marik took in a shuddering breath as the blood continued to leave his host body. "You hated Pharaoh, so I had to do something about him. He was the first you hated. And then the others, because they helped him. You don't hate them anymore, but you see..." A pause. Dark Marik tried to figure out the words to explain the thoughts in his mind. "It was all I had left. Your lingering feelings in my heart...or maybe I don't have a heart, do I? I don't know...if you gave me such a precious thing...probably not, huh..." Marik's hands were clenched in his lap, and Dark Marik continued to ramble as though just speaking his thoughts aloud, not even directing them at Marik anymore. He was watching the stars wheel about overhead. But they were likely airplanes instead.

"You abandoned me," Dark Marik mumbled, "because you didn't need me anymore. I didn't know what to do with myself after that...I didn't know what you wanted from me. I was so used to destroying things that bothered you, but...I can't destroy myself, so, I went after all of the things that made me —us— remember all of the miserable memories." Raising his host's hand, Dark Marik looked down thoughtfully at all of the blood that was caking on his palm. Marik was as still as a statue. "I just wanted to please you, don't you see? Your needs were all that mattered. Your desires, your satisfaction! But I didn't have your thoughts anymore to draw on, don't you see? You get it, don't you? All I had was my own thoughts, but I don't know...you never taught me how to think, main personality..."

Marik was crying now, though he couldn't remember when he had started. It occurred to him that his face was wet, but the reason eluded him for a moment before he brought his trembling hand up to brush away the tears. "I know...I know I didn't, I—"

Interjecting without thinking, Dark Marik went on, "It was lonely in the Rod, without a mind. I think...that this was how Bakura and the Pharaoh felt, huh, not having a second self to speak to. Maybe they panicked and starting hurting things, too. But maybe they had a someone important to talk to, in the end. It's why they fought harder than me, isn't it? Because they knew why living felt so good, and I didn't know anything about it...I was too busy trying to remember all of the things that you thought, so that I could think them too, so that I could think like you, and be the original me —you— but it didn't work out, did it..."

"Didn't you realize that I had changed?" Marik cried out suddenly, startling Dark Marik, "when I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore, didn't you recognize that I was different than before? Why did you have to try and send me to the Shadows? Why didn't you accept my new way of thinking if all you wanted was to please me?"

"Because...because...you never gave me any other feelings, remember? That's what you keep telling me...all I am is one thing. I can't help it."

Biting down on his tongue, Marik buried his face in his hands and tried to regain his composure. "I'm sorry," Marik whispered, "I made a mistake."

Breathing out slowly, Dark Marik murmured, "Yes. You let me grow too strong."

"No," Marik answered, and his other self jerked his head back towards him with a start. Their eyes met, their true eyes, purple staring into purple. "The mistake was creating you at all."

Letting out a miserable, mad laugh, the spirit replied, "That's true."

Marik grasped his bloody hand and didn't notice when it smeared all over the sweater he was wearing. "Will you come back? To me?"

"To you?" His response was uncomprehending.

"This isn't where you belong," Marik tapped the hand gently. His tears were slowly drying up. "Come back to my body. So we can be whole again...for the first time...since before we were ten...do you remember what that felt like?"

Dark Marik peered up at the sky again, and grinned foolishly, and for once the smile had no bad intentions hidden behind it. "You would let me...have a space in your heart again...even with all of the anger and hate? Even with all of the things that I did? The things that I can do? You would let me?"

"I've just realized that...we were never supposed to be apart in the first place...so please..."

A second bloody hand came up to join the first one, and tightened around Marik's. "I'm sorry," Dark Marik whispered to him, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry..."

There was a thin wispy figure drawing itself up out of the body, blurry and see-through, but Marik could make out a violet cloak and a jet black t-shirt around the body of the figure. He dropped Dr. Yoshida's hands and held them out to the figure's barely distinguishable body. And he smiled.

A deep pressure welled up in his fingertips where his skin met the figure, and suddenly the wisps of colour slipped through him, and his entire being was filled with the most incredible sensation. Heat dispensed throughout his body like a blanket, and energy flooded his system as though he had just woken up from a good night's sleep. His emotions hit a wall of shock as anger and hate re-entered his mind, and for a moment he staggered internally, before realizing that he wasn't really angry at all. But the huge capacity for anger that Dark Marik had been a container for had returned, and his childish fits of irritation and dislike over the years suddenly seemed quite mild in comparison. He breathed deeply for a few seconds, rocked with the feeling that he could not describe, as his soul sewed itself back together.

{Hello?} He called out in his head, heart beating madly as he waited for a response.

Nothing.

They were the same person again. Dark Marik no longer existed.

Marik broke down in tears. "Welcome back," he whispered to himself.

Odion kneeled down beside him, and calmly pulled him into a tight hug.

xXx

Some minutes later Siegfried came down and joined the group, informing them that he had phoned an ambulance and it was due to arrive any minute. Apparently two security guards were out cold inside. Police were also due to arrive, but the Thief King had been in the building and so everyone doubted that they would find any evidence. Siegfried, however uninformed, knew that the occurrences of the evening were not within his ability to control and so he grudgingly took their lies with a hint of acceptance in his face. What they told him even they did not remember, but Siegfried was glad not to hear about what was likely to be an unbelievable story. He was still trying to tell himself to think that he had not in fact been knocked out cold by a scrawny, sickly looking man who had actually managed to intimate him right down to his bones. He left out the details of what had transpired in the building, but the facts were not hard to guess at.

Whilst Odion and Marik roughly bandaged Dr. Yoshida's wounds, informing the others that he was likely to live, three very formidable and rare spell cards were sold to Kaiba by a relieved Siegfried (who was now more than pleased to get rid of something that was apparently a risk to his life if he kept them). Tristan and Joey sat by Marik and picked at their clothing idly, for once rather silent. Sirens sounded from down the street, and as the ambulance came around the corner Bakura hesitantly made his way over to where Yuugi and Atem were sitting on the sidewalk. They were talking quietly when he approached, but stopped and looked up at him when he paused by Atem.

Looking into their faces, Bakura became comfortable, and he delicately reached under his ruined sweater to pull out the Ring on its cord. Atem's face became grave, but Yuugi just looked understanding. "I believe this belongs to you," Bakura held out the Item to Atem, the pointers wavering slightly between them. Atem was silent for a moment.

"You are the rightful bearer, Bakura. This Item chose you for a reason. Only part of it was your connection to the spirit inside." Atem returned calmly.

Bakura's hand shook a little. "I can't keep this anymore," he whispered, "not if he wants it. Because you know I'll lose."

Yuugi started to speak, but Atem cut him off with a raise of his hand. The two of them waited for Atem to gather his thoughts. "You are stronger than you think," Atem encouraged, "I know that. I remember the Monster World game we played. You fought him, Bakura."

"And gained control of only one hand," Bakura argued back. He rubbed his finger over the scar on his palm absently, where new blood was drying on the old scar. The thief had cut him again during the ritual, though he wasn't sure of the reason this time. But it didn't matter. Now he had two bad memories carved into his left hand. "You know he's stronger than me. Don't try and comfort me, I'm only trying to be realistic." His words sounded bitter even to him, but Yuugi reached out and grasped the Ring suddenly.

"We'll keep it safe for you. Until you want it back." Yuugi agreed, startling them both. The Ring left his trembling fingers, and he nearly gasped as the heavy power stopped rushing through his veins. There was no more magic jolting through his system from the Item, and all of a sudden he realized how tired he was. How sore he was. How hungry, and cold, and empty. He hadn't understood how much he had relied on the Ring's power until that moment when it was gone. Atem was staring at Bakura with an appraising look, and he smiled shakily back. "So you can go now and not worry about us. We'll wait down here for you, okay?"

He'd hit right on the mark with that comment. Bakura took another look at Yuugi, considering how much their situations were similar. Maybe he did know how he felt. The thought made him feel grateful. "Thanks," he returned, and left their side, only turning back once to glance at them sitting there with the three Items in hand. A few meters over, the ambulance made a harsh noise as it began to drive away, Dr. Yoshida being cared for in the back.

The link was curled up in a ball in the back of his head, like a tangled piece of thread. He was worried that it would never sort itself out, but maybe if he just gave it time his head would feel better again. As he entered the office building he was hit was the stark smell of bleach, and his stomach rolled sickeningly. There were a set of elevators at the back, and he entered one, pressing a button for the floor that he guessed Dark Marik had fallen out of.

It was a horrible maroon colour, Bakura decided, looking with distaste at the carpeting when the steel doors opened with the ring of a bell. The peach walls really didn't help the matter either, but rather than dwell on the décor he headed down the hall, glancing uneasily at the mist still clearing on the ceiling. It might have been his imagination, but he thought that it had a distinct orange tint that brought up an old ache in his left arm. He noticed that the office door by the stairwell was open and went over to it.

Seeing the thief lying in a pool of blood on the floor brought up a sense of panic he'd never felt before, and he stumbled over to the spirit, hands grasping his crimson cloak for reassurance. It was like the Afterlife all over again, except this time the wounds were not to the soul. "Voice," He murmured, his pitch cracking slightly. His eyes racked wildly over the thief's body, seeing no visible slices through his clothing. Carefully he rolled the man over, and was relieved to hear him groan in response. Bakura pulled his head into his lap and got a better view of what he now knew must have caused all of that blood. Near his neck was a heavy black Shadow mark, and his hands were also covered in thinner black lines. "You're hurt," Bakura muttered helplessly.

Opening his eyes, the thief seemed confused for a minute at his position, which he clearly did not remember collapsing in. Then he got a better look at the upside-down face above him, and groaned again. "You," he muttered, "just can't seem to stay away, can you?" Bakura made a sad humming noise in the back of his throat, and ran a finger gently over the black line below his neck, making the thief hiss through his teeth. "Don't do that. I just got it to stop bleeding by clogging the wound with Shadows. It won't hold up under stress." He snapped.

Bakura's eyes widened. "I didn't know you could heal using Shadow magic."

A weary sigh. "...I'm making it up as I go." His eyes were closing again, exhausted as he was.

"Oh." Bakura thought for a moment, before tapping the side of the thief's head to get him to open his eyes again. Sending him an irritated look, he pushed himself up off of Bakura's lap with some exasperation. "We have to get those wounds looked at, okay? So that they can heal properly."

"How many times do I have to hurt you before you finally get the point? We're nothing to each other. So stop being so _nice_," the thief muttered, "I'm not going to return the favour."

Swallowing self-consciously, Bakura mumbled back, "Seeing Marik looking so at peace with himself made me wonder why we seem to be the only two soul pieces who can't get along with each other." There was silence from the thief. Bakura had expected him to retort angrily, but he guessed that he was too hurt and weary to argue with him. Or maybe he had not in fact seen Marik and Dark Marik speaking below on the street. But the deep consideration on his face made Bakura decide that he had. "Can I tell you something?"

"Even if I said 'no', I don't think you'd stop anyway. And it's not like I can bloody move if I don't happen to like what you're saying." Came the response.

Bakura ploughed ahead without thinking too hard on his sentences. "When you lost the final Shadow Game, the piece of you that was still connected to me broke so that you could pass away. I was sitting in my mind room at the time. And the place started to fall apart." There was no discernable expression on the thief's face, but his arms came up to rest over his forehead. The smell of iron was prominent in the room, but he tried to block it out to remember clearly what he wanted to say. "There's a hall, with two ends that lead to no-where and aren't really there. And a ceiling. Somewhere where I can't see. But it was falling apart. Crumbling like stones. Black pieces dropping everywhere. And there was a horrible shaking, like an earthquake in my head. I think I could feel it...both as the person in my mind and the person in control of my body. I was shaking all over.

But my room was very still. I wanted to stay in it. But I looked outside and saw your door on the other side of the hallway, and I walked over. I wanted to know...why everything was destroying itself. Because it'd been so long since I'd been in control...and I didn't know where we were or what was going on. And it was so silent before, my mind room and the hallway...were always so silent. But now it wasn't.

Sometimes, when I know I'm not thinking clearly, I start to hear garbled noises from you, Thief. Like whispers. Or thoughts. I can't tell what they are, but I do hear them echoing in the hallway. But even though it was so noisy now, I couldn't hear a thing from you. Not a single thing...

It was starting to scare me a little, but I went over to your door and I grabbed the handle. And I pulled it open. And do you know what I saw?"

He was hoping the thief would be more responsive, but he couldn't even see the expression on his face due to his arms hanging over his head. Down below the room there was noise as more ambulances came to take the two security guards to the hospital. Though Bakura did not know it, the guards were on two different floors, neither of which was the one that they were on. Bakura picked up his thoughts again and continued. "It wasn't you staring back at me from inside your room. It wasn't a ghost of Kul Elna, or even Diabound. It was Zorc."

The thief shifted on the floor.

"It was his giant head," Bakura whispered, "with the teeth like swords, and the big, malicious eyes. There was nothing that was you in that room. And I realized something. You had already gone before I opened that door, Thief. Zorc was the only piece of your soul left. But something had happened in the time that your merged souls spent in the Ring. Zorc wasn't Zorc anymore, either. It was..." Bakura's breath caught as he remembered the scene vividly, and the same feelings that he had felt then rushed through his mind. His throat seized up momentarily. "It was Zorc," Bakura went on, "but with your intentions in its mind. It was Zorc with the Thief King's hate. I don't even think it knew what it wanted anymore. It only knew what you wanted. And it saw me and...snapped out its jaws to kill me. It didn't want to die. It saw me as the only thing keeping it from living a new life. I barely got out of the way. It was the most terrifying thing...but the ceiling was still falling down, and it crushed its head. And Zorc died."

Bakura crawled forwards to be a little closer to the thief. "So...what I wanted to say is...your soul was so messed up before...the first time when you possessed me. But now you're just you. You're not part of a demon anymore, and it's not part of you. So this time can be different, can't it? Can we start over?"

Dropping his arms down, the thief gave him a very serious look. "Start over? _Us_?"

Running his fingers through his hair, Bakura laughed nervously. "Yeah, us. Please, let's try. Because I need to learn to forgive you. These sad feelings in my heart...they're too heavy to carry anymore." He murmured. The thief, rather predictably, said nothing. Bakura looked at the scar on his palm for a moment, and then looked down at the black lines all over the thief's hands. Offering him a smile, Bakura held out his hand. "Hi. I'm Ryou Bakura."

The thief gave his hand a blank stare. "We've met before." He said cautiously. Bakura gave him a disapproving look, and the thief narrowed his eyes. "I'm Bakura." He grasped his hand lightly.

"Hi, Bakura."

There was a bit of silence from the thief. Then, he gave an even more cautious tone. "...Ryou."

Ryou grinned more fully. "Now," he said, pleased, "that definitely sounds better than 'host'."

Bakura pulled away and scoffed. "I don't believe I've ever called you that."

"..."

"_What_? Don't give me that look. Aren't we starting over?"

"...Yes. I'm going to try to help you be a better person, Bakura. It'll be slow, maybe, to be happier, but it'll be worth it. And I think you need a list. Like Atem. Atem has a list." Ryou decided.

He rubbed his temples. "What in Ra's name are you talking about?" Bakura asked unenthusiastically.

"A list of things to do now that you're alive again. Foods you never got to eat before. Places you never got to see. We have to go to an amusement park. I don't think you've ever been on a roller coaster." Ryou got a thoughtful expression on his face as he imagined all of the things that he still had to show his other half.

"...Why—"

Ryou interjected before he could even start to object. "Because," he told him firmly, "you're the other half of my soul."

There was a bit of silence between them. Bakura said in a off-handed tone, "You know, I never considered you as such. It should have occurred to me earlier. I could have taught you to be a thief."

"That's...I mean..."

"You're probably right. Regardless of our connection I doubt you'd have made a very good one. You're too meek. Thieves can't be meek."

"We are going to stop this conversation right here, Bakura."

xXx

The rest of them had gone home with Kaiba, but Ryou had ordered a taxi for himself and Bakura after some deliberation and had promised to get in touch with them soon. It was an uncomfortable ride for them both (for Bakura because of his injuries and for Ryou because the taxi driver kept looking in his mirror at the odd pair he'd picked up). Ryou could only hope that he had assumed that Bakura was part of some theatre group. He had been glad that it had been so dark out, as it had kept Bakura's injuries mostly hidden from sight.

They had wanted to get out of the area before the police showed, and had only just managed to, as both groups were barely a block away before the authorities arrived. Siegfried could not figure out why they hadn't stayed to give their eye witness reports, but had agreed to keep quiet about them being there after Kaiba had threatened him with lawyers.

Though teams of detectives would comb the building for clues, everything that they would find would be of no use. Video tapes containing nothing but static. No signs of forced entry on any door. Two unconscious guards who saw nothing. And two sets of DNA, one set belonging to Dr. Yoshida, and the other set unknown. Blood and fingerprint records were filed away in a cold case file to be muttered over in break rooms for weeks to come.

Some days later, Kaiba was sitting in his office in the Kaiba Corporation building downtown when Marik walked in, giving the room a cursory glance before pulling up a chair to sit in front of Kaiba's desk. The businessman hit the save button on his document and turned off the screen, crossing his arms over his chest and giving Marik his full attention.

"I'll be leaving for Luxor tomorrow," Marik offered.

"You still have that excavation to oversee, I assume." Kaiba said curtly.

Marik eyed his crystal-clear reflection on the back of Kaiba's monitor, and used a finger to fix his eyeliner. "Yes. Bak—" he stopped abruptly, and then corrected himself, "I mean Ryou gave me back High Priest Seth's statue to place back in his tomb."

"The other objects Bakura stole were returned too, I assume."

"Dropped off anonymously at the local police station, as I saw on the news."

Kaiba tapped one finger on his desk as he thought. "I'm going to make sure that they drop their search for Ryou. Anything even slightly incriminating on him is going to be destroyed."

"Good," Marik replied smoothly, "he needs you to give him a break. Although I thought you were still irritated about him keeping secrets about the tomb robber."

Waving in hand in dismissal of the point, Kaiba ended the conversation on that particular topic. "He assured me he'd explain everything today. Now," Kaiba sighed, "cut to the chase. Why are you really here. I'm quite sure it isn't to make small talk with me, Ishtar." Marik looked amused for an instant.

"I just thought of a better idea than returning the Khnum statue to the tomb. Technically, all of his things are yours. All of his worldly possessions, his gold, his clothes, his jewellery, his—"

Kaiba used his hands to indicate his office room, and Marik stopped his speech to take a better look. It looked like half of it was a living room, with a large widescreen television on the wall and a long couch facing it. The expansive desk was apparently not large enough to fill the space on its own. "In case you hadn't noticed," Kaiba said dryly, "I really do not need to be saddled with the possessions of another man."

"Your possessions."

"Let's not break into the 'past incarnation argument,'" Kaiba said abruptly.

Pulling a bag into his lap, Marik carefully removed the ornate statue of the ram god, and set it on Kaiba's desk. "Think of it this way. Despite all of your wealth, this office of yours has no decoration whatsoever. It needs a little Egyptian flair. Think of your history."

Kaiba refrained from grinding his teeth as he stared at the statue, and for a second he thought that at least it wasn't very large, perhaps the half the length of his arm. Maybe he could stick in in a corner where no one would notice it. "You're just using me as an excuse so that you don't have to go ducking around traps in his tomb to return it," he accused.

"Guilty," Marik admitted.

Sighing, Kaiba took the statue from him and stuck it in a drawer until he could figure out what to do with it. "Was that all?"

"What, so eager to get rid of me?"

"We aren't exactly friends."

Shrugging and leaning back in his chair, Marik suggested, "I thought surviving in a virtual world with each other's help changed that."

He thought for a minute, staring off into space before replying. "I...suppose."

"So—"

"Please don't go off on a rant about friendship," Kaiba muttered.

Marik started for a moment, before breaking out into laughter. "I wasn't about to." Kaiba nodded shortly, apparently done with the conversation. But Marik said, "Any word about Dr. Yoshida?"

"He's still in recovery. Conscious, though. Someone will have to question him thoroughly to find out how much he remembers. Hopefully it's just enough for him to want to keep quiet about the situation." Kaiba returned in consideration. Marik nodded with a sigh.

He had noticed the second duel card locket around his neck, and now he questioned curiously, "Noah?"

Frowning, Kaiba dropped his gaze to the locket. Then he said, "Still hasn't woken up. But he's shown improvement, the doctors say. Normal brainwaves."

"He'll recover soon enough." Marik answered easily.

"Hmm."

"He will, you know. He's a Kaiba, after all. And they tend to defy the odds." Marik assured him. Kaiba's face broke out into a smile for a fraction of a second.

Then he abruptly changed the subject. "How are you doing recently."

This was a loaded question, but Marik did not dance around the subject, and Kaiba appreciated his straightforwardness. "It's...tough. Dealing with having a whole soul again. I'd forgotten how heavy it was. You wouldn't know, having never been torn apart, but..." Marik stopped, and considered him thoughtfully. He said uncertainly, "Or maybe you would know. I don't know the extent to which you encountered your past self. Maybe you feel the same sense of loss everyday that I did." Kaiba did not answer him. Marik continued, "Then there's the double memories to deal with."

"Double memories?" Kaiba said uneasily.

"Yes. Like...being in two places at the same time. It let me experience the Shadow Realm. From when the dark part of my —his— soul was sealed into it. And let me tell you, it wasn't pleasant."

"I know."

"You—" he stopped, "oh. You too, huh." They were quiet for several seconds, but strangely the silence wasn't uncomfortable.

"It must have been bizarre to see yourself from your —his— eyes." Kaiba wondered aloud.

Marik groaned and laughed a second later. "Like you wouldn't believe." He reconsidered his sentence, and Kaiba caught his gaze and knew what he was thinking before he could even say it. "Or maybe you would—"

"Marik." He stood, and held out his hand. He'd had enough. "I'll see you off tomorrow at the airport."

Getting to his feet as well, and grabbing his bag on his lap, he reached forward and shook his hand. "Good. I'd hate to think you only leave your office for card games and virtual worlds."

Shaking his head, Kaiba replied, "I still have to collect the final two pods from that warehouse along with the computer equipment." In a way he had both simultaneously answered Marik's thought and avoided it in the same sentence, and Marik found himself amused again.

"I didn't realize you'd found them."

"The owners did. With all of the destruction of the street that Bakura and Atem did, a lot of owners on that particular street moved their stock. Gangs, the police think. No one's interested in being in that area anymore. So with the clearing out they found my pods." Kaiba explained.

"And the police are just handing them over? Isn't it a little suspicious that your equipment was in that district?"

Kaiba smiled. "I have contacts in the police. Even if they were interested in holding the technology for an investigation, it's too late."

"You bought them out? You...really don't need all of Priest Seth's gold, do you,"

"I already told you that, didn't I?"


	36. Chapter 36

Chapter 36

The latest and very greatest booster packs for Duel Monsters had arrived, and both Game Kings were enjoying themselves, looking through all the new cards and modifying and reorganizing their decks. They sat in the living room, cards spread out in very particular piles on the floor and on the coffee table, picking piles and setting them down beside others as though they were about to build a pyramid out of cards. Yuugi's grandfather could not understand how any of it was strategy, but after looking at the circles they'd made on the floor with the cards, he supposed that it was just the way they thought. The television was on, but neither was paying attention, being as it was just background noise for them to think.

Three god cards rested on the table, delicately placed beside an elaborate gold puzzle box. They belonged in Atem's deck, but he had told Yuugi that he had no use for them when evil was not threatening their life. So they would remain the gold box, sometimes, or in a card box he kept on him, until it was necessary to use them once again. The only other card resting beside the god cards was a very peculiar Dark Magician, clad in not the usual purple robes, but instead in red ones. Both duelists regretted that they could not use this card, but its sides had been trimmed by its last owner and so it was illegal to use in a duel.

Humming quietly, but mostly just sitting in the silence, occasionally glancing at each other, they were startled when Solomon walked back in and said a limousine had pulled up to their shop, and it didn't look like Kaiba's.

Curiously, they headed out to the shop front and were considerably startled to see Pegasus slide out of the vehicle, flipping his perfectly straight hair over one shoulder as he strode up and pulled open the door. The little bell hooked on the frame gave a little jingle, and Pegasus offered a shocked face that looked more realistic than his acting during games. "Pharaoh-boy? Is it really little old you?"

Atem responded smoothly, "Yes."

Pegasus regained his composure rather quickly, taking in Atem's leather-bound body with an air of distaste. He fluidly turned to Yuugi, who was still staring at him with wide eyes. "Yuugi-boy! Why wasn't I informed of this startling development? Is it because you think I'm not important enough? Well? Is it?"

"Ah —erm..." Yuugi stumbled, looking to Atem for some assistance.

"We have been preoccupied with more pressing matters," Atem said gravely.

Closing his eyes in mock horror, Pegasus pressed a hand over his chest and moaned, "More pressing matters than your resurrection, Pharaoh-boy? And you didn't see fit to tell me about this either? You _wound_ me."

"Sorry," Yuugi offered uncertainly.

Inside Atem's shirt, the Millennium Ring was shuddering as it tried to lift its pointers in warning. Atem pulled it out from and held it horizontally so that its pointers could right themselves. Pegasus became more serious, but he still smiled serenely at Atem. "Been collecting the Items again?" He asked with definite interest.

"You have the Eye again," Yuugi murmured in realization. The gold glint was now visible from under his hair, and he grinned a little wider, pushing it to the side to reveal the Item in the empty socket once more. Atem slid the Ring back under his shirt. "How did you get it?"

"What? You mean you don't know? An old friend gave it to me. Didn't he visit you too, to give you back the Puzzle?"

"He?" Yuugi shook his head in confusion, "Ba— I mean Ryou gave us the Puzzle. He pulled it out from the Stone along with the Ring. Who are you talking about?"

Pegasus made no indication that he noticed the name change, but waved his hand in dismissal. "Why, Shadi, of course."

Yuugi and Atem exchanged a look in amazement. They had both thought that the spirit had finally passed away after Atem had left for the Memory World, and it shocked them that he was back. "When you saw him...did he have the Scales and the Key with him?" Yuugi questioned.

"Oh, yes." Pegasus' attention was caught by the glass display counters, and he eyed the packs inside with some delight. He tapped the glass with one manicured finger absentmindedly. "We worked quite hard on these new card designs. What do you think of them?"

The change in subject annoyed Atem slightly. "I doubt discussing cards was your original intention for walking through that door, Pegasus." He returned sharply.

"But you don't seem to be in the mood to give me an explanation of what's been happening here in Japan, Pharaoh-boy," Pegasus raised an eyebrow.

Sighing, Atem said calmly, "I would be perfectly happy to explain the recent events to you. I apologize that you have been left in the dark thus far. Like I said, the situation in Japan —and in Egypt— has been rough lately. But rest assured, everything has settled down now."

Yuugi was the only one not engaged in the conversation, and they glanced in his direction to see him staring at the door. They turned around.

Ryou was standing in the doorway. He shifted on his feet, visibly uncomfortable. Clearing his throat, he offered, "Hullo, Pegasus. I haven't seen you in a while."

The businessman gave a wide grin, and held out a hand for Ryou to shake, which he did, after a moment's hesitation. "Bakura-boy...the vessel, not the thief." Both men behind Pegasus tensed, and were highly bothered with Pegasus' callous remark. Yuugi made to protest Ryou's treatment, but Ryou offered him a brief smile in reassurance.

"I go by Ryou now," he corrected, stuffing his hands in his pockets, "I wanted our names to be separate."

Smiling crookedly, Pegasus said, "Ryou-boy then. Yes, it has been a while. Last time we saw each other...wasn't it Duelist Kingdom? Correct me if I'm wrong?" He tapped one finger on his chin thoughtfully.

Uncomfortably, Ryou responded, "Yes," he looked over Pegasus' shoulder to Yuugi and Atem, who were watching the exchange with uneasy faces, "if you're busy, I can come back later."

Atem turned to Pegasus, who took the hint immediately. "No, no. You three can have your chat. I assume we can talk later?" This he directed to Atem, who nodded curtly. Ryou looked on curiously. "Then I shall be off. There is...one other thing I wanted to do in Japan. A certain set of spell cards that Mr. von Schroeder was offering over the news. But I heard from reliable sources that he no longer had such cards? I don't suppose any of you would know, would you?"

"The Orichalcos cards were sold to Kaiba," Yuugi confirmed, "he isn't too busy with work today, so you could go talk to him, but I doubt he'd be willing to give them up."

Pegasus smiled cheerfully. "Kaiba-boy! I haven't seen him in ages either. And who knows, maybe if I offered just the right price..." he started out the door, and the bell jingled again gently. Ryou moved aside to let him pass. "Good day,"

"You too," Yuugi answered.

Then he left, and the limousine drove away with barely a sound. The three of them were left standing there in the storefront. "Why was he here?" Ryou asked.

"Shadi appeared to him to return the Millennium Eye," Yuugi said in wonder, "so he was wondering what was going on since the Items had left the Chamber."

"...Who?" Ryou thought for a second, before answering his own question, "oh, I think you told me about him. The bearer of the Scales and the Key." Yuugi nodded. So that is where those Items disappeared to, Ryou thought absently. Then there was a second of wasted breath between them, before Yuugi just motioned Ryou into the living room. Removing his sneakers, Ryou followed the two inside and watched with some amusement while they cleared a space on the couch for him to sit. Then Yuugi made to go get him a drink, but Ryou declined. He waited as they reorganized their piles of cards, for a while just content to sit there and figure out his thoughts.

Apparently they too wanted him to do that, because Yuugi started off the conversation on a easy topic. "Did you get any of the new booster packs that Industrial Illusions came out with?"

Atem added, "There are new fiend and magician types,"

Relaxing into his seat, Ryou reached a hand into his pocket and showed them that he, too, had his deck on hand. "Yeah, I got some. I was going to ask Joey if he'd play me sometime. Or maybe Tristan,"

"You're good enough to duel Joey, Ryou," Yuugi said, and then smacked his hand over his face, "well, not that Tristan's...I mean Tristan is—"

"He doesn't duel," Ryou grinned.

Atem offered, "If you like I would be happy to duel you."

Ryou's eyes widened. "You mean it? But I mean...it'd be too easy for you."

"But I am willing to bet you have a few surprises in your deck that I would not expect," Atem returned, causing Ryou to smile a bit. He liked the idea already, and for a second entertained the thought that he could spend the afternoon with them just dueling. But then he wound his thoughts back up and told himself why he was there.

Flipping through his cards to give his hands something to do, Ryou said, "Bakura's been staying at my apartment." Surprisingly, the statement caused less tension than he thought it would. Ryou looked up to see them both looking troubled, but not irritated or upset. "You're not going to say you're bothered by it?" Ryou wondered in puzzlement.

"No," said Yuugi, "just worried. But I think you know him well enough to know if it's okay to have him there. And you'd tell us if something happened." He was giving Ryou a warm look, and he realized that Yuugi was saying that he trusted him.

He hadn't realized his throat had gone so dry, but Ryou continued on anyway. "Well," he amended, "he's only stayed with me a couple of times. I don't know where he goes when he's not at my apartment. He...sneaks in and sneaks out. Wakes up before I do and disappears for the whole day. Food goes missing in the fridge and that's how I know he must have dropped by." Ryou paused. He fiddled some more with his cards, reading the descriptions absent-mindedly, even though he knew them all by heart. "I gave him a key." Another pause. "Well, I left it on the counter. And it's gone. So I guess he took it. So. Just in case you're wondering where he is. I don't know most of the time, but sometimes he's at my apartment."

"Thank-you, Ryou." Atem said quietly.

Taking a heavy breath, Ryou barged forward before he lost his nerve. "I don't know all of what he did while he had my body, but I know some of it. I can tell you, but I think you already have a good idea of what happened."

"Pretty much," Yuugi agreed, "we saw the news story about how the stolen Egyptian artefacts were anonymously dropped off at the police station."

"Yeah, that was me. The only thing he didn't steal was a box full of scrolls, but I don't know where he got those, so they've been sitting in my closet. Or maybe they're gone by now. He could have taken them."

Contemplatively, Atem suggested, "Maybe he obtained the scrolls on his trip out to the ruins of Kul Elna that day we returned from the Afterlife."

For a minute they thought out the idea, and Ryou put in, "I don't really know what he was doing then. I just got the feeling that he was in a Shadow Game at one point."

Atem elaborated, "Kaiba dueled him and won."

"I'm glad," Ryou said sincerely. He set his deck down so that he could meet their eyes. "Aren't you going to go after him? Bakura?"

They were speaking in their mind, Ryou knew, when they met each other's eyes like that and just considered each other. He waited patiently while they decided on an answer. "I am not..." Atem began, picking and choosing the right words to use while he spoke. His voice was not serious, but just peaceful and understanding. He sounds like Yuugi, Ryou thought, like he does when he's trying to help somebody. "I am not angry with Bakura," Atem told him, "I do not feel the same feelings of hate towards him that he feels towards me. I see no reason to fight with him if he is not harming anyone or using his magic for dark purposes. Possibly he is at this moment, and I simply do not know about it, but historically, Bakura has always been very purposeful in his actions. He never attacked anyone unless it interfered with his goals, and he never called Shadow Games unless he thought it was necessary. I am convinced that though he may still want to kill me, he will not do so through roundabout methods, and will just come after me. Already he has discovered that using the Items will not work. Using a demon will not work. Putting my friends in danger will not work. So that leaves him with very little options, you see. Likely with the Orichalcos set in Kaiba's possession Bakura will make that his new objective."

"So..." Ryou worked out, "until he tries to go after Kaiba you're just going to leave him alone."

"And that will not be for a while yet," Atem verified, "he left the minute that Kaiba showed up at the warehouse. I can only assume that Bakura considers him a strong opponent. He will be making strategies to deal with him rather than just walking up and challenging him to a duel."

Yuugi added in uncertainly, "Are you sure you're going to be okay, though, Ryou?"

He found that his throat was still dry, but he worked out a response anyway. "Yeah. But even if I wasn't...I mean, I can't just abandon him. Even if he's a horrible person. It's because...we're connected in the same way that you guys are. When he's hurt, it hurts me too. So it's not like he's going to harm me in some way. At least I don't think so." He mumbled out. There were several seconds then, where all three duelists just shuffled cards and thought their own separate thoughts. "I was the one who released him from the Afterlife, you know." Ryou finally confessed.

"We thought so," Yuugi mumbled back.

Startled now, he whispered, "But even the others just think he possessed me in order to come back. That the note I wrote was just fake."

"Yes," Atem agreed, "but they have complete souls. Of course they would not realize what it feels like to be with your other half again. Regardless of the sort of person he is."

Ryou pressed his tongue to the roof of his mouth as he thought. "It was really horrible for him in the Afterlife. He was suffering a punishment he couldn't get away from."

"Retribution. The gods are not lenient with destroyers." Atem returned gently.

"I was standing there in a replica of Kul Elna. Listening to him talk about the things Ammit did to him. It didn't feel like a lie. It felt like he was just reaching out to me because he didn't have anyone else to turn to. But you know...even with all of his pain, he still told me to go away when I first got there. Still the same person, even with the conditions that he was in. So it's not like I was unaware of what he'd be like when he got out. I just..."

Yuugi broke in, "You don't have to try and explain it to us, you know. We understand."

Carefully, Atem said, "I want to be sure that you know that he has not changed, though, Ryou. He still clings to his past like a drowning man. The ghosts of his people are all he has to live for anymore. He cannot let go of the goals he used to have, no matter that those spirits have long since been put to rest."

"I know," Ryou assured, "it's why I had to tell you where he is. I still worry that he's going to take souls like he used to before."

"We won't let that happen. None of us," Yuugi brought Ryou's mind back to all of the friends he still had to explain himself to. He rubbed his eyes wearily.

"I just wanted to tell you guys first." He got to his feet. Stuffing his cards back in his pocket, he added, "I'm going to go over and try to talk to Tristan now." Yuugi and Atem got to their feet as well, and followed him to the door.

"Take care, Ryou. Phone us if something happens. Even if it's the middle of the night. We'll answer," Yuugi told him. Ryou noticed how easily he fit the 'we' into his sentences, as if asking Atem what he thought had become unnecessary in the equation. Or maybe they were talking simultaneously in their minds. He didn't know.

Waving goodbye, Ryou walked out the door and headed down the street, his back a little straighter than before. With two friends so understanding as them, it felt like a weight had been lifted off of his shoulders.

Yuugi gave Atem a frown. "Maybe we should go over to his house occasionally. Check on him."

"That would be a good idea," Atem nodded.

They wandered back into the living room to go back to their cards.

xXx

The airport was packed. Odion returned from a phone call with Ishizu, and went to Marik's side as he chatted amiably away with Joey. Yuugi zipped up his sweater and held in a laugh at one of Joey's more crude jokes, but caught Atem making a face as though he didn't quite get it. The air conditioning in the airport was chilling him more than he liked. Kaiba was there too, which surprised all of them, standing stiffly by Téa with Mokuba beside him. He was tapping away at his phone, not listening much to the conversation but listening just enough to get away with ignoring most of them. Tristan interrupted Joey every other sentence with a remark of his own, causing even more smiles all around. Ryou stood by them in silence, having since explained himself to everyone. He was not ignored by everyone else, and felt more at peace with himself than he had been in a while. Joey's sister was possibly the only one missing, but she had gone back to her mother's home in a city a train's ride away from Domino.

"Flight 564 is now boarding." Came the announcement over the intercom.

"We'll miss you, Marik. Odion. Don't be strangers." Téa hugged them both quickly.

Kaiba offered his hand. "Have a safe flight." Marik shook it firmly.

Shrugging his shoulders, Joey said awkwardly, "I've never been good at goodbyes. But call us when you get home. To let us know that you made it there okay."

"We'll do that," Odion said easily.

Then Marik turned to Yuugi and Atem, running his fingers through his hair as he fumbled over his words. "Yuugi. We may be pretty far away, but you know we'll always come help if something goes wrong. Well. My sister will probably spot it from a mile away, so maybe we won't need to come at all. But the offer still stands." He reached out and shook Yuugi's hand. And then he turned to Atem, warily. Atem stared back. "Pharaoh. I know things have been...complicated between us."

"Disregarding the fact that you used to be two people, with two completely different opinions of me, I think that things were rough between us before we even met. I realize that it was difficult waiting for the Puzzle to be completed. I know your clan has suffered, just as the clan of the guardians of the Items has suffered." Atem answered in a troubled tone.

Marik sighed. "I was taught to worship and revere you while growing up. Everything I ever learned was about your life. And the era you lived in. My dark personality was just...me lashing out against the lack of control I had over my life, along with so many other emotional reasons. But now that the original duty of my people has been lifted, things are different. Now we bear the responsibility of protecting what we have been tasked with by choice. I know you already forgave...the Battle City incident, but now I'd like to ask you to forgive this. Bringing you back to once again undo what my other- I mean what I have done. I know that it's a betrayal to you that the person you should be trusting has fought against you."

"That's what's called irony," said Joey offhandedly. It caused Marik to break into a half-smile, before he pursed his lips to keep his face straight. But it didn't help that Atem started laughing.

"Yes, Joey," Atem said smoothly, "and Marik, you should have realized by now...that I have already forgiven you." As he reached into the pocket of the jacket he was wearing, Marik swallowed his gratitude and tried to keep his voice from wavering.

"You..." he whispered, "you can't give me this."

The Millennium Rod was in Atem's hand, held out to Marik without even a look of indecision on Atem's face. Marik was stunned. "You are the head of the tomb keeper clan. Marik Ishtar." Atem said seriously, and for a second the laws and tutoring of Marik's people that had been hammered into his head for so many years hit him, and he fell down to both knees.

"Yes, Pharaoh." The world fell away, and suddenly it was just the two of them. Noises disappeared until all he could hear was his own breathing and Atem's voice.

"Please take this Item and with your sister take care of what has been bestowed upon you. I cannot protect the world alone. I need your help. If this were three thousand years ago, I would be naming you High Priest. But it is not to be; such things have long since passed. I am no longer Pharaoh. I am just Atem, and as far as the world is concerned I do not even exist. I know that you have been struggling with this, and it is hard to accept, but I can not return to the Afterlife anymore. So I am going to live here in Japan. But I still need the tomb keepers, Marik. And there is only one other who is able to wield the Rod." Atem said gravely.

Kaiba cleared his throat. Getting to his feet, Marik blinked as the world around him came back into focus. Everyone was watching them quietly. But Kaiba said, "I am not willing to take the Rod."

There was silence. Atem said no more as he awaited Marik's decision. Then the tomb keeper reached out with a shaking hand and grasped the Rod. Atem dropped his hand, and Marik bit his tongue at the rush of energy. The overwhelming strength. "I would be honoured if you would allow me to serve you once again, my Pharaoh." He whispered back to Atem.

A soft smile. "Like I said before: I am no longer a Pharaoh."

"You will always be Pharaoh to us," Odion said shortly. He was not irritated, or exasperated, but simply telling Atem a fact.

"Last call for flight 564." Said the voice over the intercom.

Odion and Marik shouldered their carry-on bags. Marik twirled the Rod in his fingers for a moment, before sliding it through a belt loop under his jacket. They walked through the metal detectors, with the Rod going unnoticed by the sensors. Then Téa abruptly said, "Ah! Shoot. I wanted to draw a smiling face on our hands. I completely forgot."

Then Joey started to laugh, and Tristan. The rest of them broke out into laughter then, grinning cheerfully and waving at Marik and Odion who waved back. Even Kaiba offered a short wave and a half-smile. "Hey, you guys!" Marik called out to them from in line.

"What?" Joey yelled back.

"Let me know when Bakura starts causing problems again so I can give him a piece of my mind, yeah?"

"You bet!" Joey replied.

They watched the airplane rise from the runway from a large viewing window before turning to leave the airport. The topics of conversation turned to the latest video games within an instant, but Yuugi wandered over to Kaiba to ask if Pegasus had spoken with him. Kaiba's affirmation that the cards were still in his possession reassured all of them. For now, all speculations on where the cards had come from, and why Siegfried had had them, were the furthest thing from their minds. All that truly mattered was that they were in trustworthy hands.

Kaiba walked over to offer a folder to Atem.

"What is this?" He asked curiously, taking the manila folder from Kaiba's hand.

"I'm repaying the debt I owed you. From the first duel we played against each other," Kaiba returned.

Everyone wandered over to get a glance at the contents of the folder, and Yuugi peered over Atem's shoulder. There was a quiet murmur of appreciation as they realized what was in Atem's hand. "I do not understand," the Pharaoh frowned, flipping through the documents that were clearly about himself, though the content was all wrong.

Yuugi said excitedly, "They're things to show that you exist," he told his gaming partner with a delighted laugh, "legally you're a real person now." Atem jerked his head up in surprise, to see his friends all grinning at him. Kaiba just gave a slight shrug, but met his eyes after a moment.

"Thank-you," he told his cousin reborn.

There was fresh air outside, and they walked in a good mood to the rides waiting for them. Atem was quiet, staring at the groups of people that they passed, completely unaware of anything outside their own little worlds.

"I know you're worrying about what consequences your being back in the world will have. I know that having the Items at large again is worrying you, too. But you don't have to be concerned alone, Other Me. I'm here too. To share your thoughts with you. So don't shut me out." Yuugi murmured as he walked beside him, the two of them lagging behind the rest of the group a bit.

Atem turned his eyes to him. {Never,} He assured.

Comforted by the warm voice in his mind, Yuugi relaxed. "You're happy to be able to live out your new life though, aren't you, Atem? Being able to live the life you never got the first time?"

He answered without thinking over the question. "Yes. Because although I once thought that I belonged in the Afterlife, a part of me always wondered if I did not also belong here with you. And now I have the chance to do so. I will not ignore this opportunity. The gods gave me this for a reason."

"You did save the world several times, after all," Yuugi teased, "this is your reward."

Atem smiled widely. "I would like to think so, yes."

"I don't think I could live with you leaving again anyway," Yuugi admitted, surprising Atem. He watched their friends in front of them chatter aimlessly, and said, "Even though I'd want you to be happy, I think that the selfish side of me would win out, in the end."

"You are not selfish," Atem rebuked, frowning.

"But, you see..." Yuugi said softly, looking into his eyes again, "the very instant that we saw each other again I've been more happy than I remember being in a long while. All of the time that we've spent together, I've been revelling in all of it." Atem felt his chest constrict at his gentle smile. Yuugi went on, "And I..."

"Partner..." Atem whispered.

"I've been counting every second."

The End.


End file.
